Prof. Wole Soyinka a Nobel laureate, says President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has indeed attained an unprecedented level of paranoia for charging activist, Omoyele Sowore with treason.
YaahooJournalist recalls that Sowore was arrested for planning to stage a revolutionary protest, tagged: ‘#RevolutionNow.’ The Department of State Service, DSS, has gotten the nod of the court to detain him for 45 days.
On Friday, the Federal Government filed seven counts of treasonable felony and money laundering against Sowore.
Sowore, a presidential candidate in the February 2019 presidential election and publisher of Sahara Reporters, was charged along with Olawale Bakare, also known as Mandate.
Reacting to the charges in a statement on Saturday, Soyinka said the news that Sowore had been charged with treason was utterly depressing, saying that the affair had moved beyond harassment and taken on a sinister direction.
Soyinka said in the statement that: “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,” Soyinka said.
