Omisore taking up important position in APC error – Soyinka
Professor Wole Soyinka says the selection of Senator Iyiola Omisore as national secretary of the All Progressives Congress is a grave error.
The Nobel Laureate cited Omisore’s alleged assault on the former Minister of Justice Bola Ige, who was subsequently assassinated, as his sin.
Speaking to the media with a prepared release, titled ‘Forget the Past, Forfeit the Future: A Nation Seceding from Humanity’, Soyinka dares anyone who might sue him on his accusation of Omisore.
“Those who want to go to court should proceed. I am waiting. There is a lot more to be unearthed,” he said.
“If the ruling party wants Omisore, they should make him an ambassador, probably to Ukraine. Don’t make him the National Secretary of the ruling party. That’s our concern.
“Someone who was guilty of attacking the Minister of Justice in the palace of a spiritual head of a group of people is not fit to be seen as National Secretary of a ruling party.
“There is no doubt about Omisore being erudite. He is knowledgeable about certain things. When you remove the cap of a man, in Yoruba culture, he knows the meaning.
“That action of disgracing and humiliating Bola Ige, a respected chief, disqualifies him from that position. I ask APC leadership to have a rethink. This issue will not go away.”
“It is a collective guilt on the leadership of APC that you have to unleash scorpions on our memories. Wole Soyinka didn’t provoke the situation, it is those who were so insensitive, callous and calculating to rub that on our faces,” he said.
Soyinka urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reopen cases of unsolved murders,as he had promised to do, during his campaign.
Aside from Ige’s, other cases cited are those of Dele Giwa, Kudirat Abiola, Aminasoari Dikibo, Harry Marshall, among others.
On the suggestion by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to hire mercenaries, Soyinka rather implored the govenrnent to seek international assistance.
“We are overqualified for international assistance. We have reached the end of our tether.
“Let’s seek foreign assistance. Nigeria has become a slave depot. Let’s stop relying on our empty pride and tell the international community we need help,” he added.
Soyinka, who also recalled how he was robbed in Lagos and his Abeokuta home, said despite police investigation into the matter, nothing was heard again on the matter.
