•Backs Falana’s call for prosecution of sponsors
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan already has information about the financier of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, who is a staff of the CBN.
Soyinka, in his latest release, claimed to also know the identity of the financier, argued that the information has been “passed” to the president, admonishing him to summon the needed political will to prosecute all those named by Stephen Davis, the Australian negotiator as sponsors of the dreaded sect.
“That name, we confidently learnt, has also been passed on to President Jonathan. When he is ready to abandon his accommodating policy towards the implicated, even the criminalised, an attitude that owes so much to re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law to take its course” to galvanising the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name.”
Soyinka claims to have obtained the financier’s name through a foreign embassy; “In the process of our enquiries, we solicited the help of a foreign embassy whose government, we learnt, was actually on the same trail, thanks to its independent investigation into some money laundering that involved the Central Bank.”
In the same release, the renowned professor of literature berated the president for hobnobbing with ex-Borno governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, one of the persons indicted by Davis: “As if to confirm all the such surmises, an ex-governor, Sheriff, notorious throughout the nation – including within security circles as affirmed in their formal dossiers - as prime suspect in the sponsorship league of the scourge named Boko Haram, was presented to the world as a presidential traveling companion. And the speculation became: was the culture of impunity finally receiving endorsement as a governance yardstick?”
Soyinka, apart from calling for the prosecution of Sheriff and the alleged CBN financier, also called on the international community to probe sponsors of the sect as their activities constitute a crime against humanity; “All I propose at this stage is that an international panel be set up to examine all allegations, irrespective of status or office of any accused. The unleashing of a viperous cult like Boko Haram on peaceful citizens qualifies as a crime against humanity, and deserves that very dimension in its resolution. If a people must survive, the reign of impunity must end. Truth – in all available detail - is in the interest, not only of Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent, but of the international community whose aid we so belatedly moved to seek.”
Professor Soyinka while backing human rights lawyer, Femi Falana in his call for the prosecution of Sheriff, also vouched for the integrity of Davis, having worked with him during the Yar’adua government’s effort to contain militancy in the Niger-Delta: “Femi Falana can safely assume that he has my full backing – and that of a number of civic organisations - if he is compelled to go ahead and invoke the legal recourses available to him to force Sheriff’s prosecution.”
Source: Tribune
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan already has information about the financier of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, who is a staff of the CBN.
Soyinka, in his latest release, claimed to also know the identity of the financier, argued that the information has been “passed” to the president, admonishing him to summon the needed political will to prosecute all those named by Stephen Davis, the Australian negotiator as sponsors of the dreaded sect.
“That name, we confidently learnt, has also been passed on to President Jonathan. When he is ready to abandon his accommodating policy towards the implicated, even the criminalised, an attitude that owes so much to re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law to take its course” to galvanising the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name.”
Soyinka claims to have obtained the financier’s name through a foreign embassy; “In the process of our enquiries, we solicited the help of a foreign embassy whose government, we learnt, was actually on the same trail, thanks to its independent investigation into some money laundering that involved the Central Bank.”
In the same release, the renowned professor of literature berated the president for hobnobbing with ex-Borno governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, one of the persons indicted by Davis: “As if to confirm all the such surmises, an ex-governor, Sheriff, notorious throughout the nation – including within security circles as affirmed in their formal dossiers - as prime suspect in the sponsorship league of the scourge named Boko Haram, was presented to the world as a presidential traveling companion. And the speculation became: was the culture of impunity finally receiving endorsement as a governance yardstick?”
Soyinka, apart from calling for the prosecution of Sheriff and the alleged CBN financier, also called on the international community to probe sponsors of the sect as their activities constitute a crime against humanity; “All I propose at this stage is that an international panel be set up to examine all allegations, irrespective of status or office of any accused. The unleashing of a viperous cult like Boko Haram on peaceful citizens qualifies as a crime against humanity, and deserves that very dimension in its resolution. If a people must survive, the reign of impunity must end. Truth – in all available detail - is in the interest, not only of Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent, but of the international community whose aid we so belatedly moved to seek.”
Professor Soyinka while backing human rights lawyer, Femi Falana in his call for the prosecution of Sheriff, also vouched for the integrity of Davis, having worked with him during the Yar’adua government’s effort to contain militancy in the Niger-Delta: “Femi Falana can safely assume that he has my full backing – and that of a number of civic organisations - if he is compelled to go ahead and invoke the legal recourses available to him to force Sheriff’s prosecution.”
Source: Tribune
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