Soyinka Demands Answers on Unsolved Murders

Soyinka Demands Answers on Unsolved Murders

​PORT HARCOURT — Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has challenged President Bola Tinubu to make good on his administration’s initial promise to review and resolve files concerning past assassinations and extrajudicial killings, warning that national silence over such tragedies breeds a dangerous culture of impunity.

​Speaking in Port Harcourt during the 28th Wole Soyinka Lecture Series, organized by the National Association of Seadogs (Pirates Confraternity) for its annual Martyrs’ Day, Soyinka argued that the failure to bring perpetrators to justice reduces human life to a disposable commodity. The event was held under the theme “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage”.

​Recalling the early days of the current administration, the literary icon noted that President Tinubu had explicitly requested access to official dossiers on unresolved political assassinations and extrajudicial murders shortly after taking office in 2023. He pressed the presidency to publish the outcome of those investigations.

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​“I want Nigerians to join me in asking President Tinubu to bring out those files. We want to know what happened, why it happened and who should be held accountable,” Soyinka told the audience.

​A Legacy of Silence

​Directing attention to systemic state failures, Soyinka condemned the lack of definitive legal closure in high-profile tragedies, specifically spotlighting the 2022 lynching of Deborah Samuel, a student murdered in Sokoto State after being accused of blasphemy, alongside the broad-day killing of 28-year-old Mene Ogidi by a police officer in Delta State.

​He expressed profound dismay that some suspects involved in mob violence had previously gone on television to boast of their actions without facing immediate legal consequences.

​“The crime is not only the killing. The greater crime is the silence that followed and the failure to hold those responsible accountable,” Soyinka asserted. He maintained that confronting such atrocities should not be misconstrued as an attempt to stoke ethnic or religious divisions, but rather as a fundamental defense of human dignity.

​Broader Calls for Reform

​The lecture also featured contributions from other prominent national figures who dissected the structural flaws plaguing Nigeria’s security and judicial sectors.

​Former Minister of Aviation Chief Osita Chidoka drew attention to the conditions of correctional facilities across the country, disclosing that approximately 64 percent of inmates currently populate custodial centers as awaiting-trial detainees.

​“Each of these 50,000 is a life in suspension. When the state causes that delay and citizens pay with their liberty, the delay becomes a form of violence,” Chidoka stated, emphasizing that the rule of law must protect every citizen equally, irrespective of social class or political alignment.

​Echoing these sentiments, the chairman of the occasion and former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe, attributed Nigeria’s governance challenges to weak institutional frameworks and a persistent refusal to implement known policy reforms.

​Alaibe noted that reclaiming the country requires a deliberate, step-by-step commitment from both citizens and leaders to ensure that justice ceases to be a privilege reserved for the influential.