Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has explained that it was former President Olusegun Obasanjo who rejected lie detector machines donated by the United States to Nigeria.
Soyinka, who spoke in Lagos on Thursday, noted that it was important to make the clarification as some reports had wrongly quoted him as saying President Muhammdu Buhari rejected lie detector machines donated by the US.
He said Nigeria needs help and should request for same from the international community.
The literary icon said Obasanjo, not President Buhari refused lie detectors and other technological support from the US, with the claim that such will not work on Nigerians.
He said he and several other concerned Nigerians had approached the US Embassy, and asked for the country’s support but was told that the President had rejected the support earlier offered.
Clarifying an earlier report about speaking with Buhari, Soyinka said he does not have the contact details of the current president and couldn’t have spoken with him.
“I have never spoken on the phone to President Buhari in my entire existence. I do not have any phone number for him, so I could not have dialled him.
“The reporter has totally confused time and events. I was speaking of the murder of Bola Ige. Buhari was not president at the time, so how on earth could I have dialled Muhammed Buhari?
“I was narrating frantic efforts made by myself and a few others to pin down Ige’s murderers before the trail ran cold, so reference was to Olusegun Obasanjo, then President, NOT to Muhammad Buhari. I shall be extremely grateful for immediate correction.”