WOLE Soyinka, Nobel Laureate and professor of creative writing has described the firing of live bullets by the Department of State Security Service (DSS) against the protesters seeking the release of Omoyele Sowore as an act of government insecurity and paranoia that was not only callous or inhuman but it was “criminal”.
Professor Soyinka who made this statement on Wednesday asked the government to release Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, to save the country from any “further embarrassment in the regard of the world”.
The Nobel Laureate urged the DSS and the judiciary to make an apology to the nation to have kept Sowore in detention since August 2.
“It would go some distance in redeeming the image of an increasingly fascistic agency and reduce the swelling tide of public disillusionment,” he said.
Soyinka had commended the groups that c0nvened the protest for Sowore’s release on Tuesday.
The ICIR reported how the protest which began peacefully turned into chaos when some DSS operatives suddenly showed and dispersed the crowd with tear gas and firing live bullets in the air.
“It is heart-warming to witness the determined efforts of ‘Concerned Nigerians’ in defence of these rights. Predictably, the ham-fisted response of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) continues to defy the rulings of the court. The weaponry of lies having been exploded in their faces, they resort to what else? Violence! Violence, including, as now reported, the firing of live bullets. Why the desperation?
“The answer is straightforward: the government never imagined that the bail conditions for Sowore would ever be met. Even Sowore’s supporters despaired. The bail test was clearly set to fail! It took a while for the projection to be reversed, and it left the DSS floundering. That agency then resorted to childish, cynical lies. It claimed that the ordered release was no longer in their hands, but in Sowore’s end of the transfer. The lie being exploded, what next? Bullets of course!
“Such a development is not only callous and inhuman, it is criminal. It escalates an already untenable defiance by the state. As I remarked from the onset, this is an act of government insecurity and paranoia that merely defeats its real purpose. And now – bullets? This is no longer comical. Perhaps it is necessary to remind this government of precedents in other lands where, even years after the event, those who trampled on established human rights that generate homicidal impunity are called to account for abuse of power and crimes against humanity.
“The protests for Sowore’s release go beyond only acts of solidarity, they are manifestations of the judgment and authority of courts of law, under which this nation is supposedly governed. Either it is, or it isn’t. The answer stares us all in the face. The principles that now fall under threat implicate more than one individual under travail. They involve the very entitlement of a nation to lay claim to membership of any democratic, humanized union.
“The sporadic, uncoordinated responses as in the case of Omoyele Sowore, the absence of a solid strategy, ready to be activated against any threat — these continue to enable these agencies in their mission to enthrone a pattern of conduct that openly scoffs at the role of the judiciary in national life. Result? A steady entrenchment of the cult of impunity in the dealings of state with the citizenry – both individuals and organizations. The level of arrogance has crossed even the most permissive thresholds.
“Enough of this charade, nothing more than a display of crude, naked power,” said Soyinka.
He pleaded for the rule of law to reign, failing that could proclaim the death of ordered society, he said.
Sowore, who was arrested in August for convening a Revolution Now campaign, has spent 102 days in detention as of November 12 despite having been granted bail by the Federal High Court and fulfilled the conditions.