PORT HARCOURT — Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on President Bola Tinubu to fulfil his 2023 pledge to revisit unresolved cases of assassinations and extra-judicial killings across Nigeria, urging the Federal Government to ensure justice for victims and their families.
Soyinka made the appeal on Friday while speaking at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lecture Series organised by the National Association of Seadogs (Pirates Confraternity) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The lecture, themed “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage,” was chaired by former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe.
The Nobel Laureate expressed concern over what he described as selective justice, citing the unresolved killing of Deborah Samuel, the Sokoto college student lynched by her classmates in 2022 after allegations of blasphemy, and the alleged police killing of 28-year-old Mene Ogidi in Delta State.
According to Soyinka, while the policeman accused of killing Ogidi was swiftly arrested, those responsible for Deborah’s gruesome murder have yet to face justice, despite some allegedly boasting publicly about their role in the killing.
He said the country’s justice system must not discriminate, insisting that perpetrators of crimes should be identified and prosecuted regardless of their status, location or affiliation.
“Watch with me so that we can force the government to bring up all the files. When there was a government retreat, you remember? The incoming president said, ‘I want all the files of all the unsolved assassinations, killings, extra-judicial killings.’
“What has happened to those files? I want you to join me in asking President Tinubu to say, ‘We want you to dig up those files. We want to know what happened and why it happened,'” Soyinka said.
The playwright described the annual lecture as a tribute to victims of injustice and state failures, including the six policemen killed in Apo, Abuja, as well as young Nigerians who lost their lives through extra-judicial killings.
“I don’t want us to lose that sense that this session is dedicated to the martyrs, to those who have needlessly and avoidably lost their lives. The life of a human being constitutes the basic unit of any community, any structure and any system of governance,” he said.
Recalling Deborah Samuel’s killing, Soyinka lamented what he described as the silence and complicity of society in the face of injustice.
“It’s dedicated to individuals, the youths, like Deborah, who was killed, butchered by her own classmates, hunted through the city, necklaced and set on fire. But that is not the crime.
“The crime is the silence of the rest of us, that such a thing is possible, and that the killers of that girl can actually go on television, hold up a match and say, ‘This is the match with which I set her on fire,'” he added.
Soyinka urged Nigerians to continue demanding accountability and ensure that those responsible for extra-judicial killings and other violent crimes are brought to justice.
In his keynote address, former Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, said Nigeria’s justice crisis begins long before cases reach the courts, stressing that the handling of complaints by law enforcement agencies is a critical part of the justice process.
Chidoka disclosed that about 64 per cent of inmates in Nigeria’s custodial centres were awaiting trial, leaving more than 50,000 people detained without convictions.
“Each of these 50,000 is a life in suspension, a job lost, a family destabilised, someone’s health failing. When the state causes that delay and citizens pay for it in lost liberty, the delay is not inefficiency; it is a form of violence carried out by the state itself,” he said.
He maintained that justice must be administered equally to all Nigerians irrespective of their identity, religion, ethnicity or political affiliation.
Earlier, the chairman of the event, Chief Timi Alaibe, said accountability and justice remain indispensable to national development, urging citizens and public institutions to recommit themselves to rebuilding Nigeria.
“Nations are not reclaimed by rhetoric alone; they are reclaimed when conscience triumphs over confidence, when institutions are stronger than individuals, and when citizens summon the courage to do what is right, even when it is difficult,” Alaibe said.
