In a deeply revealing opinion editorial, Nobel Laurent, Wole Soyinka laid bare some disturbing information on the behind-the-scenes moves to rescue the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.
Soyinka said that the allegations made by Stephen Davis, the Australian negotiator who came to Nigeria to secure release of the Chibok schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram militants in their school over four months ago, should not be dismissed off-hand. He said he had worked with Davis during the Niger Delta crisis but was not involved with the priest’s efforts with Boko Haram.
I know Stephen Davis, I worked in the background with him during efforts to resolve the insurrection in the Delta region under President Umaru Yar’Adua. I have not been involved in his recent labours for a number of reasons. As I revealed in earlier statements, I have interacted with the late National Security Adviser, General Azazi, on occasion – among others. I am therefore compelled to warn that anything that Stephen Davis claims to have uncovered cannot be dismissed out of hand.
The professor expressed his total disdain for Boko Haram and his persistent calls for the terrorist group to be dealt with.
From the very outset, in several lectures and other public statements, I have advocated one response and one response only to the earliest, still putative depredations of Boko Haram and have decried any proceeding that smacked of appeasement. There was a time to act – several times when firm, decisive action, was indicated. There are certain steps which, when taken, place an aggressor beyond the pale of humanity, when we must learn to accept that not all who walk on two legs belong to the community of humans – I view Boko Haram in that light.It is no comfort to watch events demonstrate again and again that one is proved to be right.
On the complicity of former Borno Governor Modu Sheriff as a sponsor of the Boko Haram sect, he says:
I have no doubt whatsoever, and I believe that the evidence is overwhelming. Femi Falana can safely assume that he has my full backing – and that of a number of civic organizations – if he is compelled to go ahead and invoke the legal recourses available to him to force Sheriff’s prosecution. The evidence in possession of Security Agencies – plus a number of diplomats in Nigeria – is overwhelming, and all that is left is to let the man face criminal persecution. It is certain he will also take many others down with him.
Soyinka says that the allegations against General Ihejirika as a sponsor of the dreaded sect should be subjected to an independent investigation and the findings made public. He also revealed that he knows the name of the alleged CBN sponsor of terrorism in the country and he was ready to reveal the name of the person.
Stephen Davis also mentions a Boko Haram financier within the Nigerian Central Bank. Independently we are able to give backing to that claim, even to the extent of naming the individual. 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. 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 criminalized, an attitude that owes so much to re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law to take its course” to galvanizing the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name.
You may read the full op-ed HERE
