“The person suspected of committing the act… was taken in for questioning,” police said. He is being investigated for fraud.
A Romanian taxi driver has been detained for scamming Nigerian Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka, authorities confirmed.
Soyinka, 90, arrived at Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport on June 27 and boarded a taxi to a hotel downtown. Upon arrival, the driver demanded €400—over 20 times the usual fare. “Faced with his protests, Soyinka paid the amount,” Adevarul reported.
The driver then sped off but had to be pushed by fellow drivers after his car stalled. The Airport Transport Police launched an investigation, identifying and detaining the suspect, a 43-year-old man, two days later. “The person suspected of committing the act… was taken in for questioning,” police said. He is being investigated for fraud.
Soyinka, renowned for his contributions to literature and democracy in Nigeria, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.
He was visiting Romania to receive a star on the Walk of Fame in Sibiu, alongside other global cultural figures.