Nobel Prize-winning author and playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has shared details of how he was robbed and briefly abducted during a recent trip to Bucharest, Romania.
Soyinka travelled to the European country to participate in the prestigious Sibiu International Theatre Festival, where he was to receive special recognition.
Speaking in Lagos on September 9 during an interview with TheNEWS/PMNEWS, Soyinka said his excitement about the festival quickly turned into fear after arriving in Bucharest shortly after midnight. According to him, because he missed the official team that was supposed to welcome him at the airport, he boarded what appeared to be an authorised taxi heading to the Novotel Hotel.
However, the vehicle veered off to a secluded and poorly lit area. “At about 1 a.m., the driver stopped at an unknown location and brought out a point-of-sale device, ordering me to enter my PIN,” Soyinka recalled. He said the driver kept concealing the screen, forcing him to punch in wrong digits for nearly half an hour to delay the transaction while hoping someone might pass by.
The dramatist described the tense encounter as the driver alternated between interrogating him and demanding the code. Eventually, he was dropped off close to his hotel, shaken but unharmed. Soyinka said the attackers managed to take some money from him, though he was unsure if the withdrawal would later be reversed.
“For me, the monetary loss is secondary. What concerns me more is the broader implication — this is not only an attack on me personally but on society at large,” he said.
Despite the ordeal, Soyinka was safely transported to Sibiu the following day for the festival. He, however, expressed dissatisfaction with how local authorities handled the matter, noting that the police quietly managed the case without updating him on any progress. He hinted that he would reveal more about the incident in an upcoming volume of his “Intervention Series.”
Reflecting on the experience, Soyinka said it was “surreal and deeply unsettling” but also a reminder of the need for vigilance and stronger accountability in combating organised crime.
