He expressed this has resulted in the judiciary being manipulated by powerful people in the country.

The playwright made this assertion while speaking on Wednesday during a television programme, Kakaaki, on AIT.

Soyinka expressed that the system had become corrupted so badly that court cases were being stretched out through technicalities.

He said: “There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam, and so the system is being manipulated.

“There are cases where the prosecution had reached the level where evidence had been given on governors who had been stealing and depositing in bits and pieces so as not to flout a certain regulation.

“I mean cases have been taken to that level and suddenly, silence.

“The EFCC, which I backed solidly ever since the days of (Nuhu) Ribadu, in all kinds of ways; we no longer can distinguish from rights and left.”