Renowned playwright and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has shared a chilling account of being abducted and robbed during a visit to Bucharest, Romania.
Soyinka’s ordeal occurred when he arrived in the city at 12:10 a.m. to attend the prestigious Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS), one of the world’s largest performing arts festivals.
After missing his hosts at the airport, Soyinka boarded what appeared to be an official taxi to Novotel Hotel, where he was scheduled to lodge.
However, instead of heading to the hotel, the driver diverted to a deserted, dimly lit area.
Soyinka recounted, “So I got into the taxi and the man drove and drove and finally we got to a spot.
”It was now close to 1 o’clock in the dead of the night. And I thought we were in the hotel. Then he brought out his POS.”
The driver coerced Soyinka into surrendering his bank details, insisting he enter his PIN.
Soyinka in an interview with Arise News, revealed that he deliberately entered the wrong PIN, playing for time and hoping someone would come out of the hotel or pass by.
The drama lasted between 25 and 30 minutes, with Soyinka trying to stall the driver while wondering if he was in a gang-infested area.
“I didn’t discover it wasn’t a hotel until I finally got down. I was still playing for time, hoping somebody would come out of the hotel, maybe smoking cigarettes, even a street worker or whatever,” he said.
Despite the ordeal, Soyinka made it to the hotel and was later picked up by a car and taken to Sibiu, where the festival was held.
He expressed concern that the incident was not just an attack on him as an individual but an assault on the entire community.
Soyinka has documented the experience in the upcoming edition of his Intervention Series, highlighting broader concerns about crime and punishment.
