Soyinka Links Unresolved Murder Cases in Nigeria to Corruption Demands Justice for Bola Ige
POLITICS DIGEST – Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has decried the unresolved murder cases in Nigeria attributing it to corrupt forces in the country.
He cited the killing of a former attorney general of the Federation and minister of justice, Bola Ige, in December, 2001 and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to produce the report of the investigation he ordered.
Soyinka spoke in Abuja on Monday at the 2019 International Anti-Corruption Day, organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in collaboration with Nigeria Shippers’ Council.
The playwright stated, “We have a phenomenon of unsolved murders and we know for a fact that some of them are the result of corrupt forces. A notorious example: A former attorney-general and minister of justice in the country, Bola Ige, was assassinated in his bedroom. It wasn’t a political affair, political rivalry and contestation.
“He was killed, you know, by the forces of corruption and so this compels one to ask what has happened to the investigation ordered by the President of the country into those high-profile murders.
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“If we do not solve some of these murders, we cannot get into the heart, into the core of the corruption in this country and this involves also the authorised and constitutional agency of open society such as the judiciary,” Soyinka said.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in his address, reiterated the commitment of his administration to the war against corruption.
Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, described the summit, as a step in the right direction.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Zero tolerance to corruption: A clarion call,’ the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, regretted that corruption had “created multi-dimensional crises across the globe, put families in deprivation, poverty and exposed individuals to unexpected insecurity leading to frustration and suffering.”
Magu restated the readiness of the EFCC to battle corruption, citing the commission’s victory in the case involving a former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, as a pointer to the agency’s relentless determination to ensure that the corrupt did not go unpunished.
He said, “The cumulative value of recoveries by the commission runs into hundreds of billions of naira, millions of dollars and other foreign currencies. In the Port Harcourt zone of the EFCC, a total of 244 trucks were forfeited to the Federal Government owing to illegal oil bunkering activities in the region.”
