Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has berated the Federal Government for charging detained publisher and politician, Omoyele Sowore, with treasonable felony.
The government filed a seven-count charge against Omoyele Sowore a day to the expiration of the 45-day detention order they obtained against the 2019 Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in August.
The charges centered on treasonable felony, insulting President Buhari and money laundering.
Soyinka too has been a ‘victim’ of treasonable felony as slammed on him during the notorious Abacha regime.
Reacting to the charges, Soyinka said they were initially so unbelievable to him that he first regarded them as fake news.
He said in a statement: “This is utterly depressing news. So, the Sowore affair has moved beyond harassment and taken on a sinister direction. Outside the country where I happened to be engaged at the moment, I can testify that the immediate reaction around me was to dismiss this as yet another grotesque product of fake news, of which Nigerians have become the greatest practitioners. I confess that I also joined in this school of thought – at the start.
“Further checks have however confirmed that this government has indeed attained an unprecedented level of paranoia. I do not believe that the Justice department itself believes in these improbable charges, as formally publicised. So, once again, we inscribe in our annals another season of treasonable felony, History still guards some lessons we have yet to digest, much less from which to learn. Welcome to the Club, Mr. Omoyele Sowore.”
