This afternoon, enraged by the mortuary photos of Prof. Festus Iyayi published exclusively in TheNEWS magazine, the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka insisted that Iyayi must not be buried without a coroner’s inquest.
The following is the full text of his statement:
The world is watching. With the mortuary photos of the late Festus Iyayi just published in TheNEWS, the world is waiting and watching if the corpse shown in that image will be interred without a coroner’s inquest. To allow this to happen is to make all of us accessories to a possible crime. It means we are now attuned to the culture of impunity and forfeited all claims to elementary ctiizen security. Tributes ring hollow if doubts are silenced. “Beyond all doubt” is a protective armour for each one of us, no matter where and how. So let the nation be placed in knowledge Beyond All Doubt over the circumstances of Festus Iyayi’s death. That is the minimum any self-respecting society must demand, not merely as a collective shield, but in the service of Truth, and for all posterity. We remain haunted by the far too frequent, unexplained decimation in the ranks of the committed.
A Coroner’s Inquest – that is where to begin.
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