Nobel Laurette Prof. Wole Soyinka has faulted the remanding of a former Minister of Power and Steel, Mr Olu Agunloye, in Kuje Correctional Centre.
Mr Agunloye was brought before the court on Wednesday where he pleaded not guilty to corruption charges read against him.
The presiding judge at the Federal High Court subsequently ordered that he be remanded in Kuje Correctional center, pending when the bail would be granted.
Reacting to the development in a statement made available to Channels Television, Soyinka expressed concern over the safety of the former Minister, suggesting that there are forces who may be working to accord him the same fate as late former Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, who was assassinated in 2001.
“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.
“I wish to alert the nation, and the government that there exists a justifiable, high-level concern for his safety.”
The Nobel Laurette called for “an independent, non-partisan commission to probe at length and in-depth, in public sittings, 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.
Credit: channelstv.com
