Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, says there would be an uproar in the country if the truth of how the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu was arrested becomes known.
Recall Kanu was on Sunday, June 27, extradited to Nigeria to face trial after he jumped bail and fled the country in 2017.
Speaking with BBC Pidgin on Monday, the literary icon said the action by the Nigerian government could only be best described as “kidnap” and it is “internationally and morally wrong”.
“It’s not for me to tell the president to prepare itself because it’s going to be a huge squawk when the truth about how Kanu was arrested comes out. People are alleging this or that. That is one phase whether Nigeria has acted outside international law,” Soyinka said.
“The second issue, however, has to do with Kanu’s conduct outside the nation. There’s been a level of hate rhetoric which has been unfortunate, from Kanu. Hate rhetoric is an issue that can only be judged by the laws of any nation.
“Was it right ‘to have been kidnapped?’ You can say intercepted as much as you want but I think Kanu was kidnapped. That is wrong internationally and morally,” Soyinka said.
