The Federal High Court sitting in Jos yesterday granted the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Mr. Henry Okah, three weeks to enable him undergo comprehensive medical treatment.
The court said Okah has to be in a good state of health before a plea could be taken for the charges of treason and treasonable felony levelled against him.
The court presided over by Justice Stephen Adah admitted Okah’s medical report in evidence, and therefore adjourned the case to November 21 to observe the health situation of Okah after treatment, which he said should be within Nigeria.
The development, followed the submission of Okah’s lead counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, who argued against the medical report submitted by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr. Salihu Aliyu, that the accused was in a stable condition and could stand all the rigours of the trial.
The DPP tendered the report of the specialist that attended to the accused, a Urologist from the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), and added that he would need a second opinion on the report.
The DPP thereafter urged the court to take the plea of the accused, “because he is in a stable condition.”
But Falana objected on the grounds that the report as tendered by the DPP, did not suggest a second opinion, “but a further specialist examination, which requires that the accused be subjected to a diuresis renography by using TCMAG3,” which Falana said was not available in Nigeria.
“I urge the court to urge the federal government to provide the facilities abroad without any further delay. In the alternative, we apply under paragraph 12 of the Prisons Regulations made pursuant to the Prisons Act that the accused be released to his family for the specialist treatment abroad with an undertaking to bring him back after treatment,” Falana argued.
He further submitted that until there was full diagnosis and treatment of Okah, the question of arraignment should be secondary.
The medical doctor who examined Okah, Dr. O. Adole, said the accused would need further treatment and further examination.
The doctor, therefore, suggested that he would need about three weeks to further examine Okah, “which will fall on November 21.”
In its short ruling, the court held that the medical report was not suggesting another opinion but further test. It therefore granted the accused the three weeks for treatment as suggested by the Urologist.