Two months into his release from detention in a celebratory amnesty deal, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah, is already in a war of words with the Yar’Adua administration, by describing a statement by the Presidency that Angola and Equatorial Guinea were briefed about his release as disgraceful.
Speaking through his lawyer, Femi Falana, in Lagos on Tuesday, Mr. Okah said since “the charges (filed against him by the FG) did not refer to any offence committed in both countries,” the decision of the federal government to ignore his detention in Angola amounted to a “subversion of national sovereignty.”
“We expected the Nigerian authorities to have challenged the Angolan government for the illegal arrest and detention [and as a result of this]… Henry Okah has decided to sue the government of Angola for detaining him for 5 months without trial,” his lawyer said.
Mr. Okah was reacting to the statements credited to the senior special adviser to the President on communications, Segun Adeniyi on Monday, August 31, when he said the federal government contacted the Governments of Angola and Equatorial Guinea before Mr. Okah was released.
“It is not true that the President has not sent a delegation to Equatorial Guinea and Angola on Henry Okah. I am aware that the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bagudu Hirse, led a delegation to Equatorial Guinea …. on Henry Okah. The delegation also visited Angola …” Mr. Adeniyi told State House reporters last week.
Mr. Okah was arrested in Angola for gun running and was held by the Angolan Authorities before he was handed over to the Nigerian Government in February, 2009. He was released on Monday, July 13 after the federal government dropped the charges against him as part of its amnesty plan for Niger Delta militants.