Henry Okah, leader of Nigeria’s main militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is to sue the government of Angola for wrongful arrest and detention in the southern African nation, his lawyer, Femi Faland, said.
Falana was reacting to a Nigerian presidency statement that it briefed the gover nments of Angola and Equatorial Guinea before Okah was freed from incarceration – after he embraced the government’s amnesty deal.
â?The official statement credited to the Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, that Nigeria briefed Angola and Equatorial Guinea before granting amnesty to our client, Henry Okah, is to say the least disgraceful.
“As the charges (against Okah in Nigeria) did not refer to any offence committed in both countries, the action of the Federal Government of Nigeria is a subversion of national sovereignty. In any case, Henry Okah has decided to sue the government of Angola for detaining him for five months without trial,” the private Thisday newspaper quoted Falana as saying Wednesday.
Okah was arrested for alleged gun running and detained in Angola in September 2007. He was repatriated to Nigeria in February 2008 to face treason and other charges.
The Nigerian government withdrew the charges against Okah and set him free in July 2009, after he embraced the amnesty offer for oil militants.
He has since travelled to South Africa for medical treatment.