Wole Soyinka, a popular Nigerian Nobel laureate, has expressed worry over the former minister of electricity and steel, Olu Agunloye, who is being held in Kuje jail.
According to reports, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Agunloye in an Abuja High Court on Wednesday on a fraud charge.
Agunloye was remanded in prison by the judge.
In a statement released on Wednesday by his spokeswoman, Jahman Anikulapo, Soyinka remembered that the late Bola Ige was slain in his bedroom and that the culprits had yet to be discovered.
He said that Agunloye, a key witness in Ige’s case, may be murdered in jail.
“Dr. Olu Agunloye, we learn, was finally charged to court today, and the presiding judge in his or her wisdom, adjourned the case and proceeded to remand the accused.
“I wish to alert the nation, and the government that there exists a justifiable, high-level concern for Agunloye’s safety.
“I have made it clear that Bola Ige’s murder was not unconnected with the Mambilla scam. Olu Agunloye worked closely with me, both within and outside routine police motions, to unmask Ige’s killers.
“It would therefore amount to unpardonable complacency to propose that there are no forces sufficiently desperate to accord Agunloye the same fate as Bola Ige.
“Let it be understood that if anything happens to this pivotal witness while in custody, the inference will be heard loud, clear, and unambiguous”, Soyinka warned.
