DSS’ Midnight Arrest Of Sowore, Travesty Of Fundamental Rights — Prof Soyinka

Share

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has described the Saturday early hours arrest of the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Mr. Omoyele Sowore, by the Department of State Services (DSS), as “a terrorist midnight arrest, a travesty and violation of the fundamental rights” of citizens to congregate and make public their concerns.

Prof Soyinka noted that demonstrations and processions were time honoured democratic ways of drawing not only the attention of government to ills, but of mobilizing the public towards a proactive consciousness of their condition, and thereby exhorting civil society also to devise means of ameliorating their condition through their own efforts.

Prof Soyinka also said that Sowore, who is also the publisher of Sahara Reporters, has not in any way engaged in any treasonable act as alleged by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Prof Soyinka said he therefore find the reasons given by IGP Adamu for the arrest and detention of Sowore as totally contrived and untenable as well as unsupported by any shred of evidence.

The statement titled: “Surely, Not Again!!!” noted that the “deployment of alarmist expressions” such as “treason,” “anarchist” and “public incitement” by security agents was predictable and banal stressing that the expressions have become meaningless.

He further said; “Nothing that he (Sowore), said to me in private engagement ever remotely approached an intent to destabilise governance or bypass the normal democratic means of changing a government.

“This is all so sadly déjà vu. How often must we go through this wearisome cycle? We underwent identical cynical contrivances under the late, unlamented Sani Abacha, when he sent storm-troopers to disrupt a planning session for a similar across-nation march at Tai Solarin School, Ikenne.

“This was followed up by a personalised letter that was hand delivered by the State Security Services to me under their summons, at their Abeokuta so-called ‘Annexe,’ with near identical wording to the threats contained in today’s release from the desk of the Chief of Police.

“At least, I was summoned, not subjected to a terrorist midnight arrest. Some irony! The same pattern Pavlovian conduct manifested itself under yet another supposed democratic ruler who personally declared that the gathering of civilians to deliberate on, and propose a constitution for the nation was ‘high treason’, and would be resisted by the full rigour of state power if we persisted.”

Soyinka said the then Inspector-General of Police mobilized his forces and issued inflammatory proclamations, but PRONACO went ahead despite all the thundering from Aso citadel, asking; “Can the police ever learn anything also their tear-gassing and brutalizing of grieving mothers who marched peacefully to protest the deaths of their children in a plane crash inferno?

“Their mission, under that same regime, which was simply to deliver a letter to government house in Lagos, demanding greater safety in airline operations, yet such a rational intent, born of traumatic circumstances, was quashed on the sidewalks of a supposed twentieth century nation.”

Soyinka therefore urged IGP Adamu to wade through the daily journals of the past few weeks and months, read and digest the calls by numerous sectors of society – across professions and national groupings – for demonstrations against the parlous conditions of society, all identifying ills to which attention must be drawn, and urgently, through mass action.

He further said; “Religious bodies have urged such remedies, so have civic associations. The ready recourse to arrests, incarceration and threats to civilians are ultimately counter-productive. They alienate the citizens, erode their confidence in governance responsiveness, and thereby advance the very extremist nightmare that security agencies believe they are acting to thwart.

“If we cannot learn from the histories and experiences of other societies, let us at least learn from ours. Freedom is not so glibly qualified. It cannot be doled out like slops of charity from soup kitchens.

“Let the Police stick to their task of protecting and managing protests, not attempt to place their own meaning and declaration of intent on bogey words like – revolution.”

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply