LAGOS, Nigeria — Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has called on President Bola Tinubu to reopen investigations into the unresolved killings of two prominent Nigerians — journalist Dele Giwa and former attorney general of the federation Bola Ige — citing unpursued leads and political negligence.
Speaking during a media interaction at Freedom Park in Lagos, Soyinka accused successive Nigerian governments of repeated betrayal by failing to resolve the high-profile assassinations.
He challenged the current administration to honour past promises and bring long-awaited justice to the victims’ families and the Nigerian public.
“The clues are there. Pursue the clues, dust up the files, re-investigate, call back witnesses, find out those who deliberately polluted the line of clues that would have led to certain answers,” Soyinka said.
Giwa, the founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine, was killed on 19 October 1986 by a parcel bomb delivered to his Lagos home — an unprecedented act in Nigerian media history.
Ige, a former governor of Oyo State and the nation’s attorney general at the time of his death, was assassinated in his Ibadan residence on 23 December 2001.
Despite widespread condemnation and initial investigations, no convictions were made in either case.
“Let us know what happened. Till tomorrow, we don’t know who killed Dele Giwa, or who killed Bola Ige, but there are clues,” Soyinka said.
“Those clues exist. During that Bola Ige period, many things went unpublicised.”
He also criticised former President Muhammadu Buhari, who had pledged to investigate “unusual deaths” involving both civilians and members of the military, but failed to follow through.
“When Muhammadu Buhari came, he said he would order an investigation into all the unusual deaths both within the military and civilians. And we reminded him, ‘Where are the files? Let us see the results,’” he said.
Soyinka described the inaction as a “betrayal” and urged Tinubu to fulfil the promises made by his predecessors.
“It is a challenge to the present government to fulfil the pledges made by your predecessor. Pick up those files, and dust them. It is part and parcel of the responsibilities of government,” he said.
