Read The Untold Story Of Why Wole Soyinka Was Declared Wanted In 1965

Noble Prize winner, Professor Wole Soyinka, is a dramatist, port and essayist. He was the African to be awarded the Novel Prize in Literature.



The 85 year old Noble Prize winner was born into a family with very special history. His grandfather was Josiah Ransome-Kuti, the singing minister from Abeokuta.







Wole soyinka like other family members have always spoken for the masses by making sure Justice was served.






After Chief Samuel Akintola's victory in the 1965 regional elections, he was supposed to give a Victory speech that saw him return to power.

Just before the radio broadcast of the re-elected Premier's speech, an unknown man that was armed gained access into the compund of the "then" Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in Ibadan, and snatched all the tapes that carried the newly elected Premier victory speech.






This unknown armed man was reported to be Wole Soyinka, and he forced the announcer to broadcast another tape which came along with.

So, instead of the victorious speech of Chief Samuel Lakode Akintola, the western people of Nigeria heard another message. Read the new message that was broadcasted below;

“Akintola get out; Akintola, get out and take with you your band of renegades who have lost with you any pretence to humanity, and have become nothing, but murdering beasts...

The lawful government of Western Nigeria is the UPGA government, elected by the people of the West. Let every self-seeking impostor get out now before the people, losing patience, wash the streets in their polluted blood. . . .

In the name of Oduduwa and our generation, get out! Before the frustration of ten million people, their anger and their justice in an all-consuming fire come over your heads.”

Offcourse like any other person, the Premier was vexed by this humiliating occurrence and this was why Wole Soyinka was without hesitation declared wanted, detained and later charged with the offences of stealing the Premier's tapes, and Conspiracy.

The detention if Woke Soyinka resulted in protests and calls for Mercy by a lot of intellectuals and influencial figured in the society.






Even though woke Soyinka was taken to court, the prosecution at his trial failed to affirm a judgement because of different contradicting testimonies by several witnesses concerning the Identity of the armed man.






Justice Eso Kayode, who lead the trial in1965 said the right action to take in this situation was to acquit and discharge the prosecuted person.

Justice Kayode, who was in charge of the case repelled all pressures from the western region powerful Politicians that wanted Wole Soyinka to be declared guilty by all means. See the judge statement below;

“All the eye-witnesses [at the radio station] were positive that the [armed] man who held them up was not masked.

"The place was well lit, they said, and they had no doubt about their examination of the gunman’s face. The gunman, they had all said, was bearded."

[One of the witnesses who gave evidence for the prosecution testified that Soyinka, whom he saw two hours before the incident at the radio station, was clean-shaven].

"While l can understand a bearded man at five o’ clock in the evening becoming clean-shaven at 7 p.m., I cannot unravel the mystery of a clean-shaven man at 5 p.m. becoming bearded at 7 p.m. [when the incident occurred] except he is somehow masked."

"And the overwhelming evidence placed before the court by the prosecution itself, was that the gunman, who held up the cubicle that night was not masked. That ‘un-masking’ kept up recurring like a ‘recurring decimal’."

"It is clear to me therefore, that no tribunal should be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that it was the clean-shaven ‘Wole Soyinka’ at 5 p.m. without a mask who metamorphosed into the bearded gunman at 7 p.m."

"With this sharp contradiction in the evidence of the prosecution, I am bound to give the accused person the benefit of the doubt. I therefore find him not guilty and he is, accordingly, acquitted and discharged.”






Decades later, Wole Soyinka talked about the ugly incident, saying he was one of the few people inspired to intervene in the old western region crisis. He said the Democratic rights of the western people of Nigeria were frustrated by impudent electoral fraud.

He said:

“I was one of them, my voice was being stolen. I could not sit down and accept that somebody should steal my voice. I felt at one with the majority of the people.”