Attack On Sen. Abe: Soyinka Accuses Jonathan

Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has asked President Jonathan to quickly call the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu to order before he wreaks havoc on the democratic process.

Speaking in Osogbo on Wednesday during the celebration of the late African icon, Nelson Mandela, at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) in the Osun State capital, Soyinka said the likes of Mbu is not required in a peaceful like Rivers, rather he should be sent to Maiduguri to go and confront Boko Haram.

“Since Mbu is such a tough cop that is so powerful and mighty that he can steamroll over the democratic process of this nation and to show how tough he is, I recommend to Jonathan that he should be sent to Maiduguri to go and show his powers there with Boko Haram”, he said.

Soyinka also accused President Goodluck Jonathan of “looking elsewhere for the smoke in the plane” while “the fire is right on his own roof at Aso Villa, adding that something must be done to put it off before it becomes unstoppable.

The writer said he was ashamed to be a citizen of a country where a police commissioner could act with impunity and open fire on unarmed people who were exercising their fundamental human rights as upheld by the Supreme Court of Nigeria while insisting that people do not require a police permit to meet and that the police are obliged to provide protection for people meeting peacefully.

Soyinka added that if it were Nelson Mandela at the head of Nigeria, “any policeman or law enforcement officer who fires even a rubber bullet at innocent people would be in jail now, however highly placed”.

Soyinka therefore called on the President to bring Mbu to order.