That the All Progressive Congress lost the governorship election in Osun last July is a good punishment for the sacrilege the party and it’s leaders committed against the soul of late Justice Minister, Chief James Ajibola Ige.
This was the comment by Nigerian literary icon, Wole Soyinka while speaking on a Channels Television programme.
He accused the ruling party of committing what he called a “sacrilege” against the slain former Minister of Justice and those who represent his ideals.
“When the results began to come in, I had just returned (from overseas). It was like a welcome present because I saw that party (APC) being punished for that act of sacrilege,” he said.
Soyinka said the APC committed sacrilege against Ige by the selection of one of the prime suspects in his murder in 2001 to become the National Secretary of the party.
The incumbent Gboyega Oyetola, was defeated by Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defeated the incumbent Osun State governor.
While Adeleke polled 403,371 votes, Oyetola polled 375,027 votes having a margin of about 28,344 votes.
Soyinka had immediately said that the voice of Ige resounded from the grave in the 2022 governorship election in Osun.
He said the APC and the PDP have recorded so many inter-marriages and are polluted.
Soyinka said: “The two parties (APC and PDP) have become very confusing to start with. Members have moved across so much…there has been so much inter-marriage and the bloodline has diluted in many aspects, being polluted in many aspects. It even got to a stage where a prominent member of the APC actually articulated the sentiment of: ‘Oh, come and join us and your sins will be forgiven’.”
“It didn’t surprise me too much that somebody who has been so heavily implicated in the death of a prominent member of that party, Bola Ige, he is a founding member, that his memories should be so thrashed by consulting one of the prominent figures who featured in the events – forget whether he was innocent of the actual crime or not – was heavily implicated in the humiliation of that individual, that founding member of that party who was also the minister of justice of this nation.
“To actually catapult one of those crime suspects and proven contributors…and to find that that person has been given a position in that party (APC), in governance, and after the President (Muhammadu Buhari) had actually inaugurated a re-examination of that episode amongst other crimes, that is quite a bit of shock. And I mentioned at a time, that is a bit of sacrilege. And remember, this Osun is Bola Ige’s state.”