Nigeria’s literary icon and Noble Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Thursday condemned in very strong terms the wanton killings and reckless destruction of properties by some religious bodies, saying that such dangerous precedence is a total departure from the norm, value system and culture that bind various interests together across the country.

 Speaking against the backdrop of the August 22 Talata-Mafara crisis that erupted in Abdu-Gusau Polytechnic  in Zamfara State in which eight persons lost their lives, Prof. Soyinka described the events and those involved as “idiotic” that an academic environment was suddenly turned to a theatre of bloodbath all in the name of religion.

 Delivering his lecture tilted ‘Culture At Risk’ at the Second Eminent Lecture series organised by the University of Benin, Edo State Thursday in the state capital, he reminded all that abuses of culture have negatively robbed and weakened a people’s and nations including the country, the capacity for resistance under aggression, or more routinely, retarded their material progress.

He said until the preachers of religion intolerance are made face trial and if found guilty, be prosecuted; religious violence will be a hard nut to crack and would continue unabated in the country.

 The Noble Laureate said when those  who have instigated the killing of persons in the name of religion and blasphemy are allowed to walk freely in the society without being compelled  to face trial according to the law, it would further encourage more religious violence in other parts of the nation.