Soyinka: APC punished during Osun poll for sacrilege committed against Bola Ige

Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, says the All Progressives Congress (APC) was punished at the Osun governorship election for committing “sacrilege” against Bola Ige, late minister of justice.

Bola Ige, an AGF in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, was killed on December 23, 2001.

Omisore, who was then a deputy governor of Osun state, was accused of involvement in the murder of Ige.

After his impeachment in 2002, Omisore was arrested and detained over Ige’s murder but he denied any involvement.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, Soyinka said the result of the Osun election showed that APC was punished for the act of sacrilege.

He said it was shocking that the APC could make someone who was implicated in Ige’s murder one of its executives.

The Nobel laureate, however, did not mention the name of the APC member.

“When the results began to come in, I had just returned (from overseas). It was like a welcome present because I saw that party (APC) being punished for that act of sacrilege,” he said.

“The two parties (APC and PDP) have become very confusing to start with. Members have moved across so much. There has been so much inter-marriage and the bloodline has diluted in many aspects, being polluted in many aspects.

“It even got to a stage where a prominent member of the APC actually articulated the sentiment of ‘Oh, come and join us and your sins will be forgiven’.

“It didn’t surprise me too much that somebody who has been so heavily implicated in the death of a prominent member of that party, Bola Ige, he is a founding member, that his memories should be so thrashed by consulting one of the prominent figures who featured in the events – forget whether he was innocent of the actual crime or not – was heavily implicated in the humiliation of that individual, that founding member of that party who was also the minister of justice of this nation.

“To actually catapult one of those crime suspects and proven contributors, and to find that that person has been given a position in that party (APC), in governance, and after the President (Muhammadu Buhari) had actually inaugurated a re-examination of that episode amongst other crimes, that is quite a bit of shock. And I mentioned at a time, that is a bit of sacrilege. And remember, this Osun is Bola Ige’s state.”