Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has condemned the invasion of a court in Abuja by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
In a statement personally signed by him on Friday, Professor Soyinka asked President Muhammadu Buhari to call the agency to order.
He issued the statement hours after DSS operatives who came in at least three pickup trucks stormed the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, in a bid to re-arrest Mr Omoyele Sowore.
The attempt to make the arrested inside the court was, however, resisted by Sowore and his supporters, resulting in a scuffle between both sides.
Confronting the security officials, Sowore’s lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, stated that it was very wrong to carry out such an operation in court.
He, thereafter, asked the officials to go out of the court premises after with Sowore was driven in Falana’s vehicle to the DSS office where he was re-arrested and detained.
In his reaction, Professor Soyinka likened the incident to what he called ‘Lessons from the African Wild Dog.”
According to him, disobedience calls to disobedience and the disobedience of the orders would only lead to the disregard of the authority of other arms of civil society by the people.
The Nobel laureate warned the government to uphold and respect judicial institutions in order to prevent the present situation from degenerating into chaos.
He also advised that those he described as the “wild dogs of disobedience” be taught some basic court manners.
Before Friday’s incident happened, the court had ruled to adjourn the trial of Sowore and his co-accused, Olawale Bakare, until February 11, 2020.
The duo are facing charges of treason following the demonstrations by some Nigerians under the #RevolutionNow to protest what they described as worsening conditions in the country.
The DSS released Sowore and Bakare on Thursday after refusing to do so in disobedience to two court orders.
Despite the refusal, the security agency insisted that it has always obeyed the orders of the court.