Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan has come under pressure from his Ijaw kinsmen to facilitate the release or trial of the detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Mr. Henry Okah.
The intense pressure on Jonathan to come to the aid of Okah coincides with a meeting by Ijaw youth leaders in Delta State on Saturday (today) to discuss and take a definite stand on the fate of the MEND leader. The meeting, to be hosted by a notable activist, Chief Government Ekpomupolo, in Opororoza, the headquarters of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, was initiated by the Ijaw Youth Leaders� Forum. The IYLF is the umbrella body of the leaders of Ijaw youth organisations in the volatile region.
Sources told Saturday Punch that the meeting would work out strategies to compel the Federal Government to either arraign Okah in court or release him unconditionally. Some of the delegates to the meeting arrived Warri, Delta State on Friday, on their way to the venue of the gathering.
Saturday Punch further gathered that delegates who arrived early for the meeting on Friday included the Secretary of the Federal Government Committee on Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku; leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahedeen Asari Dokubo; and the President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Dr. Chris Ekiyor. All past and present leaders of IYC and other Ijaw youth bodies in the Niger were invited to the forum.
Kuku, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Friday, said the meeting would take far reaching decisions on the entire peace process in the region, particularly the fate of Okah whose whereabouts was yet to be ascertained. Kuku, a former member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, urged the Federal Government to be careful in its handling of Okah, adding that some aggrieved youths of the region could capitalise on his fate to foment fresh crisis in the area.
He said, �The government needs to be very careful in the handling of Okah�s case because it can truncate the peace initiative in the region. Before you know it, some youths will start kidnapping oil workers to seek the release of Okah. We will then come back to square one in the search for peace in the region.� Okah, who was arrested at Luanda Airport on September 3, 2007 for alleged gun-running, was extradited to Nigeria on February 14, 2008 by the Angolan authorities.
A report credited to MEND by Reuters on Tuesday that Okah was accidentally killed during interrogation in Kaduna sparked off fresh tension in the region. The militant group handed a 24-hour ultimatum to the government to confirm or deny his rumoured death and threatened violence in the region. The Federal Government has, however, refuted the report of his death.
Meanwhile, Saturday Punch gathered that Jonathan is being subjected to pressure to use his office to secure the release or trial of the MEND leader. Jonathan was asked to prevail on President Umaru Yar�Adua to direct the release or immediate prosecution of the Niger Delta activist.
To this end, Saturday Punch learnt that some notable community and youth leaders in the region have contacted Jonathan to discuss the security implication of a long incarceration of Okah without trial in the region. A notable Ijaw leader in the region told our correspondent on the telephone on Friday that Jonathan had been inundated with endless telephone calls since Tuesday when the news of Okah�s rumoured death broke.
He said, �We (Ijaw leaders) have been calling the VP, who is our son, not to allow Okah to be killed because of the security implication of such an action for the Niger Delta. The VP is an Ijaw man. He should use his privileged position to ensure that no harm comes to his kinsman. We specifically asked him to persuade his boss, President Umaru Yar�Adua, to order the release or trial of Okah because tension is building up in the region due to the inability of his aides in the MEND and his teeming followers in the area to ascertain his whereabouts and the state of his health.�
The Ijaw leader, who craved anonymity, added that some prominent indigenes of the region would meet with Jonathan in Abuja on Monday to further discuss the fate of the MEND leader