The Federal Government has prepared 47 charges bordering on treasonable felonies against Mr. Henry Okah, the detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the group believed to be behind the militancy in the country�s oil region.
This is a significant addition to the original 17 charges, but the trial could not commence at the Federal High Court, Jos, Plateau State, yesterday because of the legality or otherwise of the secrecy that the government wants for the court proceedings.
Security sources told THISDAY yesterday that government had dropped charges against Edward Atatah, a shipping captain, who was supposed to go on trial with Okah, but was suddenly discharged and acquitted.
THISDAY was informed by security sources that an attempt to read the charges to Okah was halted owing to the legality, or otherwise, of the secret trial.
The Federal Government had secured a court order which permitted it to try the MEND leader in secret, but Okah�s legal team, led by Mr. Femi Falana, has been protesting vehemently against it.
At the court yesterday, the legal team was said to have stalled court proceedings by quoting several laws in Nigeria which give the accused the right to know the charges three days before the commencement of trial.
Okah�s lawyers, according to the sources, also quoted a section of the 1999 Constitution which mandated that an accused person must have sufficient notice before charges are read to him or her in a court of law.
The government�s legal team was said to have insisted on reading the charges so that the court could take Okah�s pleas before he could raise objections to the �secret trial�.
THISDAY learnt that the court eventually adjourned till April 22 to examine the objections before the charges are read and pleas taken.
Talking to reporters in Jos yesterday, Falana berated the Federal Government, describing its ex-parte order to try Okah in camera as �barbaric” and a mockery of the rule of law which it claims it believes in.
Falana, who spoke with journalists on arrival with another lawyer and two female witnesses, both believed to be the wives of Okah and Tom Atake, said: “I have come to challenge the order allowing the trial of my client to be conducted in camera.”
He was temporarily disallowed entry into the premises of the court by security men.
While waiting, he said: “It is really funny when military coupists are tried in the open that a civilian has to face a camera trial, especially when the offence in question has been made public by government.”
Falana said: �Government has called my client names such as gunrunning, treasonable felony, trafficking in arms and has gone ahead to publish the charges in the media and internet, yet it wants our defence to be in camera. That in itself is injustice and an abuse of rule of law. What is now secretive about an offence that has been so published that the trial should be conducted in camera?”
He maintained that “up till now my client has not been served with any charges”, and despite a court order obtained for the injunction of the trial, �Okah is being kept incommunicado�.
Meanwhile, a heavy security presence was noticed around the entire city of Jos, with riot policemen hanging on trees around the court premises.
The security men had stormed the streets as early as 8 am and had barricaded the adjourning streets to the Federal High Court, the venue of the trial, turning away motorists and passers-by.
The court was surrounded by sophisticated military equipment, including armoured carriers, and some roofs under construction were taken over by the policemen who took strategic positions presumably to ward off any attack.
Journalists were warned against the use of camera.
They were equally disallowed from recording the proceedings.
Okah was arrested on September 3, 2007 in Angola on his way back to Nigeria from South Africa.
The Angolan government detained Okah and his fellow traveller, Atatah, for allegedly possessing �incriminating literature�, gunrunning and the sponsoring of a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
But the charges were thrown out of the Angolan court and they were extradited to Nigeria last February.
MEND issued a statement shortly after the arrival of the two men in Nigeria that Okah had been killed, but this was denied by the government.
Apr42008