Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka on Wednesday said Nigerians must get the current fight against corruption right to be able to address the vexed issue of electoral rigging that has marred the nation’s political system.
Soyinka who spoke at a Colloquium in honour of the Executive Editor, The News/PM News, Kunle Ajibade who turned 60 in Lagos said unfolding scenario in the country tends to portray the police as set of people that are untouchable in the country.
He noted that he did not mean those collecting N100 forcefully from members of the public, but those at the helms of affairs of the police force.
Soyinka at the event with the theme: “A Brighter Future for Nigeria and how to get there” said, “Among those that I believe were untouchable before were the police but not those that were on the streets harassing and collecting money from people.”
He said after the arrest and prosecution of the former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun for corruption, having being exposed through in investigative story by Ajibade, he began to ask other questions as to who corrupted the police.
“I know that of the government institutions, the police were often involved in profiling corrupt persons. But the questions that later baffle me was who then corrupted the police? Who made sure that the agencies enforcing law were corrupt?
“And that was why when I met Ribadu after former IGP, Tafa Balogun was arrested, I emphasized that the job of fighting corruption doesn’t end with the person holding the money but also how he got the money or how the money got into his bank account. Does he engage in other businesses aside law enforcement? And where did the money come from?” he fumed.
