Soyinka: There’s justifiable concern for Agunloye’s safety in Kuje prison

Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, has raised concerns about the safety of Olu Agunloye, former minister of power and steel, in prison.

On Wednesday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arraigned Agunloye at the federal capital territory (FCT) high court, Apo over allegations of fraud.

The court ordered that the former minister be remanded at the Kuje correctional facility.

Reacting to the development in a statement on Wednesday by Jahman Anikulapo, his spokesperson, Soyinka said Agunloye’s remand in Kuje prison gave “justifiable, high-level concern for his safety”.

He said the late Bola Ige, Agunloye’s predecessor in office, was murdered in his bedroom by professional assassins, adding that the killers are yet to be identified.

“Dr. Olu Agunloye, we learn, was finally charged to court today. The case was adjourned, and the presiding judge, in his or her wisdom, proceeded to remand the accused in Kuje prison, pending resumption of his case,” the statement reads.

“I wish to alert the nation, and the government that there exists a justifiable, high-level concern for his safety.

“I have made it clear, even as recently as a few weeks ago, that Bola Ige’s murder was not unconnected with the Mambilla scam. Olu Agunloye worked closely with me, both within and outside routine police motions, to unmask Ige’s killers.

“It would therefore amount to unpardonable complacency to propose that there are no forces sufficiently desperate to accord him the same fate as Bola Ige. That goal is made easier by the abrupt decision to remand him in prison.”

The Nobel laureate called for “an independent, non-partisan commission to probe at length and in-depth, in public settings, this scandal of expanding dimensions that has crippled the energy needs of a nation of two hundred million citizens over the past two decades. The latest development is sinister and alarming”.

“Let it be understood that if anything happens to this pivotal witness while in custody, the inference will be heard loud, clear, and unambiguous,” Soyinka warned.