Why I rejected centenary award — Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, said, yesterday, he rejected his nomination for centenary award by the Federal Government because he could not share the award with the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who he described as a “murderer and thief of no redeeming quality”.

“I can’t think of nothing more grotesque and derisive of the lifetime struggle of several of this (Honours) List and their selfless services to humanity”, Soyinka said in a statement entitled, `The Canonisation of Terror’.
“I reject my share of this national insult”, he added.

Listing some of the atrocities that took place under Abacha that made the late Nigerian leader of undeserving of the centenary award, the Nobel Laureate said: “It is a confidence trick that speaks volumes of the perpetrators of such a fraud. We shall pass over – for instance – the slave mentality that concocts loose formulas for an Honours List that automatically elevate any violent bird of passage to the status of nation builders who may, or may not be demonstrably motivated by genuine love of nation.

Accordingly,  generalized but false attributes to known killers and treasury robbers is a disservice to history and a desecration of memory.  It also compromises the future. This failure to discriminate, to assess, and thereby make it possible to grudgingly concede that even out of a ‘doctrine of necessity’ – such as military dictatorship -  some demonstrable governance virtue may emerge, reveals nothing but national self-glorification in a moral void, the breeding grounds of future cankerworm in the nation’s edifice.

”Such abandonment of moral rigour comes full circle sooner or later. The survivors of a plague known as Boko Haram, students in a place of enlightenment and moral instruction, are taken to a place of healing dedicated to an individual contagion – a murderer and thief of no redeeming quality known as Sani Abacha, one whose plunder is still being pursued all over the world and recovered piecemeal by international consortiums – at the behest of this same government which sees fit to place him on the nation’s Roll of Honour!”

I am not training snipers for Jonathan- Hamza Al-Mustapha

...challenges Obasanjo to public debate

The former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Sani Abacha, Hamza Al-Mustapha, has debunked insinuations by former president Olusegun Obasanjo in his famous letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that he (Al-Mustapha) was released from prison to help the president train assassins to eliminate opposition politicians.

Speaking to the Hausa Service of the Voice of America, VOA, monitored in Abuja on Wednesday, Mr. Al-Mustapha challenged the ex-president to a public debate on the allegations he raised.

Mr. Al-Mustapha said he was away in India receiving treatment for injuries he sustained while in detention during the administrations of Abdulsalami Abubakar and Mr. Obasanjo when he heard of the allegations.

“I read Obasanjo’s letter and subsequent comments by Nigerians, I would have responded immediately, but I was away in India receiving treatment,” he said.

He also said although his name was not mentioned in the letter, he was sure the former president was referring to him.

“If he has anything to say on me, he should mention me directly or even challenge me and not make allusions,” Mr. Al-Mustapha said.

Mr. Al-Mustapha swore that the allegation that he is being used by Mr. Jonathan to train assassins is false. He said he has always been in the vanguard of people from the north to be recruited into the military and para-military agencies; and would therefore never involve himself in anything that would hurt the region.

“Perhaps it is Obasanjo and his cronies that are planning what he was insinuating,” he added.

“I urge everyone to pray for Obasanjo to accept my challenge for a public debate so that the truth will come out,” he said.

Mr. Al-Mustapha said he is focused on helping Nigeria find its rhythm by uniting the people, especially the youth and the poor.

“From 1974 to the present, a lot of things are buried with all sorts of lies. But all would be revealed one day,” Mr. Al-Mustapha said.

JTF Arrests Boko Haram Suspect in Mohammed Abacha's Home

The Joint Task Force(JTF) in Kano arrested a suspected Boko Haram member at the residence of the son of late former Head of State Sani Abacha, Mohammed, Daily Trust reliably gathered.

It was gathered that the suspect who is a domestic aide of Abacha’s son at his residence located on Magajin Rumfa road at the Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Nasarawa local government area of the state was trailed to the house following the arrest of a suspected Boko Haram member in Maiduguri, Borno State.
Security forces comprising men of the Nigerian Army and those of the State Security Service (SSS) went to the residence at around 1pm on Wednesday.

A source close to the family told Daily Trust that the security operatives arrived the house at a time when the aides of Mohammed were saying their Zuhr prayers.

“They came during the Zuhr prayers; in fact the people around in the house were observing the prayers. The security men alighted from their cars and about 10 of them who were well-armed entered the building and waited till the end of the four raka’at prayers.

“After the prayers, they asked all the people around to lie down. In fact some security men who were among those people praying were also asked to lie down because they were in mufti. When the security men among those people that were lying down indentified themselves, the JTF members asked them to stand up,” he said.
According to the source, the JTF operatives then brought out a suspected Boko Haram member who was handcuffed to identify the suspect in Mohammed’s house.

“As the suspect was trying to identify the one in Mohammed’s house, he started running and jumped a fence but the security operatives arrested,” he said.

However, when our correspondents went to the residence of Mohammed around 1pm yesterday, security guards stationed there denied knowledge of the military operation and the arrest of the suspected Boko Haram member.
But a trader near the residence said he heard about the arrest of the suspect from a friend. “I was not around when the operation took place but I heard that a suspected Boko Haram member was arrested in the house yesterday (Wednesday),” he said.

When contacted by telephone, Mohammed Abacha said nothing like that happened.
Spokesman for JTF in Kano state, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the operation but declined further information, saying investigation was still on.


Information from Daily Trust was used in this report.