MINISTER of Special Duties, Presidency, Mr. Godsday Orubebe has dismissed as untrue an allegation that Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan betrayed detained leader of the Movement for Emancipation of Niger-Delta (MEND), Henry Okah, after paying a visit to him in South-Africa, last year to seek ways of resolving the Niger-Delta crisis.
Speaking in an interactive session with newsmen in Warri, Delta State, Elder Orubebe said the Vice President went to South Africa and met with Henry Okah just as he met with other persons that are supposed to be involved in the peace process in the region, asking, �If Vice President meets with you today and tomorrow, you have problem with the security agents, there is no way you will say that it is the Vice President that is behind it.�
There have been insinuation before now that Dr. Jonathan betrayed Henry Okah, who not only cooperated with him when the duo met in South Africa, but, was given the opportunity to nominate two members of the Federal Government Committee on Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Niger-Delta, based on his inclination, which he did.
The Vice President, according to the speculation, was angry with Okah when he discovered that he was allegedly behind the bombing of his Otuoke residence by militants, last year.
But Orubebe said, the Vice President cannot be thinking of a peace process and at the same time, thinking of doing something that will mar the peace process. It is not possible.
�The Okah affair happened on its own, it has nothing to do with the Vice President, the Minister explained, stating categorically that nobody sacrificed Henry Okah, in any form.
On the report that the Ijaw activists engaged in the peace process with the government were suspicious that the government may have an ulterior game plan, as the names of some of the leaders, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and Government Ekpemupolo were contained in the charges against Okah as those that were supplied arms and ammunitions, he said there was no cause to fear, as Dokubo-Asari who was earlier charged for treason and other offences was released by the Federal Government because of its determination to bring peace to the region.
So, Henry Okah’s matter, as far as I am concerned will not stop the peace process but I know that the peace process will resolve most of the issues that we have on ground. So, nobody is sold out, nobody is being pursued unnecessarily.
The Federal Government has an agenda and we will pursue the agenda to the end to see that there is peace in the Niger-Delta; that jobs are created for the youths and everybody, and that people are involved in doing what is meaningful to earn a living, he asserted.