Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has condemned the wanton arson and killings perpetrated by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, militants in the South East, saying those killing policemen, setting INEC offices on fire are not different from Boko Haram.
Mr Soyinka made the comparison in a statement he issued in the wake of Twitter ban in Nigeria.
The Nobel Laureate also said the militants are not genuine liberators.
“I hold no brief for those who resort to burning down police stations, slaughter their occupants simply for the crime of earning a measly monthly pittance, torch electoral offices, assassinate politicians in calculated effort to set sections of the country against others in the promotion of their own political goals. These are largely nihilists, psychopaths and/or criminal lords, soul mates of Boko Haram, ISWAP, Da’esh and company, not to be confused with genuine liberators. All over the world, throughout history, elections are denounced, boycotted, and generally delegitimized without recourse to wanton butchery,” Mr Soyinka said.
READ FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
“Heard the news of Buhari’s ban on Twitter an hour or so after sending off TO SHOCK AND AWE to the print media. Kindly add my total lack of surprise at this petulant gesture, unbecoming of a democratically elected president.”
“If Buhari has a problem with Twitter, he is advised to sort it out between them personally, the way Donald Trump did, not rope in the right to free expression of the Nigerian citizen as collateral damage.”
“In any case, this is a technical problem Nigerians should be able to work their way around. The field of free expression remains wide open, free of any dictatorial spasms!”