Soyinka urges Ortom to remain resilient in face of persecution

NOBEL Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has urged Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State to remain resilient despite the persecution that followed his defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Governor Ortom penultimate week defected to Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Professor Soyinka in a recent letter to the Governor, on his decision to dump the ruling APC, observed that Ortom had a moral right to seek an alternative political platform given the level of insensitivity exhibited by his former party to the wanton killings in Benue state.

He noted that the choice of the Governor to seek an alternative platform should not be the reason for the heavy-handed campaign against him since he enjoys the free rights to do so.

The letter read in part, “As a leader of a people who took much of the earliest brunt of unleashed herdsmen savagery and cried in vain for help, you have a moral right to seek the promise of an alternative haven of security for your people.

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“They remain your primary responsibility. We are all free to cavil over the actual choice of an alternative destination, but no one can deny the inalienable entitlement to such action, especially where provoked by disillusionment and a sense of impotence under existing association.

“Coincidences are, by their very nature, suspect, and I certainly perceive the beginnings of a heavy-handed campaign of reprisals from ruling circles over your political decision.

“This bodes ill for the nation. It goes beyond any immediately affected state and alerts us all to fascistic threats against a common democratic destination, and the basic right of free choice of political paths towards its attainment.

“I can only urge you therefore to take heart, and remain resilient, unbowed, and undeterred,” he added.