The eminent professor opined that Kanu was kidnapped as against the claim that he was intercepted.
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has said there will be what he described as a 'huge squawk' if the truth is known about how the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu was arrested by the Nigerian government.
Soyinka gave the warning during a recent interview with BBC Pidgin.
The eminent professor opined that Kanu was kidnapped as against the claim that he was intercepted.
He further advised Nigerian government to show eagerness in arresting bandits and terrorists.
He said, “It’s not for me to tell the president to prepare himself because it’s going to be a huge squawk when the truth about how Kanu was arrested comes out. People are alleging this or that. That is one phase whether Nigeria has acted outside international law.
“The second issue, however, has to do with Kanu’s conduct outside the nation. There’s been a level of hate rhetoric which has been unfortunate, from Kanu. Hate rhetoric is an issue that can only be judged by the laws of any nation.
“Was it right ‘to have been kidnapped?’ You can say intercepted as much as you want but I think Kanu was kidnapped. That is wrong internationally and morally.
“The government cannot wash itself clean on what seems to be a kind of comparative energy in pursuing the destabilised forces in the nation,” he said.
“If we take ourselves back, once when I threw a challenge to Buhari, what I expect from a true leader is to issue an order, give a deadline that any illegal occupant of any villages, farms is given 48 hours to quit after which the mighty forces of the nation will be unleashed on them. It was ignored.
“Years later, he came to say ‘we will respond to these people in the language they understand’. This is what I expected him to have said years ago, at the beginning of the insurgency.
“Their leadership–the Miyetti Allah — should have been arrested years ago, long before IPOB was declared a terrorist organisation.”
Kanu, whose rearrest and extradition to Nigeria has sparked the outrage in some quarters, is facing 11 counts of treason, treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of firearms, among others.
He was re-arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja last Tuesday and ordered to be remanded in the custody of the DSS, while the case was adjourned till July 26 and July 27.
Nigerian Government said security and intelligence agencies were on the trail of Kanu for over two years before he was re-arrested.