Henry Okah
A major twist was added yesterday to the complicated story of last Friday’s Abuja bomb blasts when the exiled leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) Mr. Henry Okah told Al Jazeera Television that aides of President Goodluck Jonathan asked him to get MEND to retract its claim of responsibility for the bombings.
Okah, who has been charged to court in South Africa for alleged complicity in the blasts, said the Federal Government wanted MEND to retract its claim so it could blame the incident on presidential aspirants from Northern Nigeria who are opposed to Jonathan’s desire for election in 2011.
President Jonathan’s spokesman Ima Niboro responded to Okah’s allegation yesterday, describing it as “an outright lie.” Niboro also challenged Okah to name the presidential aide that spoke to him.
Speaking exclusively to Aljazeera from his prison cell, Okah said, “On Saturday morning, just a day after the attack, a very close associate of President Jonathan called me and explained to me that there had been a bombing in Nigeria and that President Jonathan wanted me to reach out to the group, MEND, and get them to retract the earlier statement they had issued claiming the attacks.
“They wanted to blame the attacks on Northerners who are trying to fight against him [Jonathan] to come back as president and if this was done, I was not going to have any problems with the South African government. I declined to do this and few hours later I was arrested. It was based on their belief that I was going to do that President Jonathan issued a statement claiming that MEND didn’t carry out the attack because they were expecting a kind of retraction from the group.”
Okah said the president’s men don’t want it to seem as if Jonathan does not have the support of his people and that the attack is going to be a huge setback to his presidential ambition. “For
months now they have been lying to everybody that everybody is so pleased with Jonathan, that he is going to bring peace to the region, which is entirely false. This attack now was actually going to be a great smear on his aspiration. They just needed the group to retract that statement which was why I was contacted. But I declined to make any such move.”
He said, “You don’t just give people an amnesty and ask them to forget about the reason why they are fighting. Every one of us is fighting for something and if what we are fighting for is not addressed, it ushers problem in the area. You understand. It is not about Jonathan being president or about an amnesty being given. I mean, why will you steal my land and you give me an amnesty and then you expect me not to continue fighting you? Why would that happen?”
Okah said “With Yar’adua it was much better. He had a good understanding of the problem. And regardless of the fact that he was from the North, he was making good attempt at addressing these problems. But with Jonathan it is entirely a different story. He doesn’t know what the problems are and is also being teleguided by other people, you know, who are giving him very bad advice.”
Asked what he thought will happen to him now that he is being arraigned, Okah said, “I don’t care, I really couldn’t care. But one thing I tell you for sure, is just like I was able to talk to you, it only shows that South Africa is not like Nigeria. In Nigeria I was held for one year and four months in solitary confinement. I didn’t kill anybody, I had no books, no newspapers, no TV, no radio, not even electrified. But the fact that I can speak to you on phone, even though I am being detained, shows that I am in an entirely a different country from Nigeria. And I am arrested here at the instance of Nigeria, which threatened the South African government with diplomatic action if they didn’t arrest me. That is the only reason why I am in detention. All those people I learnt have been arrested in Nigeria I have no contact with any of them, I don’t even know them. They are just trying to do this thing to point the finger at other political opponents in order to scuttle their attempts at being president.”
For his part, Niboro’s statement said, “Mr. Henry Okah who has been openly charged for masterminding the terror attacks against his home country has been quoted by Al Jazeera Network as claiming that an aide of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan called to ask him to blame the October 1, 2010, bombings on Northern politicians.
This of course is an outright lie, and we challenge Okah to name the President’s aide that spoke to him on the subject. There is an ongoing investigation on Okah’s alleged involvement in the bombings in Nigeria. In South Africa, he has already been charged to court. He should face the charges, and stop making frivolous claims.
There is no question that Okah is a drowning man determined to pull others down with him, and there is hardly any purpose to be served by joining issues with an accused mass murderer. Okah is a man who has been known to say one thing and do another, and we are not at all surprised by his diversionary rhetoric.”
Listen to the interview below:
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