Renowned playwright and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has narrated a harrowing experience of abduction and robbery during his recent visit to Bucharest, Romania, where he was scheduled to attend the prestigious Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS).
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TheNEWS on September 9 in Lagos, Soyinka disclosed that the ordeal occurred shortly after his arrival in Bucharest. He had travelled at the invitation of Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu, President of the General Assembly of UNESCO, to serve as Guest of Honour at the festival, where he was to be honoured with a star on the Walk of Fame in recognition of his global contributions to literature and theatre.
The literary icon explained that after missing his hosts at the airport, he boarded what appeared to be an official taxi to his hotel. Unknown to him, the driver was part of a criminal gang. Instead of heading to the hotel, the driver diverted to a deserted area and forced him to surrender his bank details. Soyinka recalled being coerced into entering his PIN into a concealed POS machine while trying to stall for time in hopes of rescue.
“It became a battle of wills inside the car, which approached violence,” Soyinka recounted, describing the experience as both surreal and unsettling. He was eventually abandoned at an unfamiliar location before finally making it safely to Sibiu. The incident, he said, highlighted not only his personal ordeal but also the broader dangers of organised crime networks operating under the guise of official taxi services.
Festival organisers expressed shock while Romanian authorities launched investigations. However, Soyinka noted that he was never fully briefed on the outcome. He described aspects of the handling of the case as troubling and revealed that he has detailed the episode in the forthcoming edition of his Intervention Series, to be published by Bookcraft.
Although financially defrauded, Soyinka emphasised that the loss of money was not his main concern. For him, the episode underscored the deeper issue of crime and justice, which he views not merely as an attack on an individual but as an assault on the entire community.
