FRESH posers were raised on Wednesday by Azuka, wife of the detained Niger Delta leader, Henry Okah, over the granting of amnesty to her husband and other militants willing to surrender their arms.
She said her husband should first be released even if there were some loose ends that required further attention in the peace deal. She frowned at the decision of the Federal Government to confer with the Angolan and Equatorian authorities on the granting of amnesty to Okah, saying the move was suspect.
In a response to an e-mail from the Nigerian Tribune, she recalled that her husband was repatriated from Angola after spending six months in detention in the Southern African country.
She wondered if the decision of the Federal Government to consult with Angola was meant to instigating that country to cook up fresh allegations against the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) towards extraditing him to that country.
President Umaru Yar’Adua offered the clemency to Okah, who is on trial for gun-running and treason, and other militant leaders who are expcted to embrace the gesture within 60 days.
Okah was arrested in Angola in September 2007 and extradited to Nigeria five months later. Azuka, who confirmed that she was yet to see her husband to ascertain his stand on the amnesty offer, said Nigeria was not a banana republic to be dictated to by another country.
She stated, “I need to see my husband to know if this is genuine and know his reaction. I however, feel we are a sovereign nation and the consultation with Angola though, he was extradited from there.”