October 1 bombing: A-Court gives FG nod to try Charles Okah

The Abuja Division of the Appeal Court, Mongay, gave the Federal Government the nod to prosecute Charles Okah, and three others, accused of planting the bomb blast that killed 12 persons while Nigeria celebrated its jubilee anniversary on October 1, 2010. The two other accused persons okayed for trial by the appellate court Monday were Edmund Ebiware and Obi Nwabueze. 

 Charles Okah It would be recalled that one of their alleged accomplice, Tiemkemfa Francis Osvwo (a.k.a General Gbokos), died in his detention cell at Kuje prison, Abuja, on March 3. The accused person had gone before the appellate court to challenge the refusal of trial justice Gabriel Kolawole, to quash the terrorism charge that was preferred against them by the federal government, for want of either a prima-facie nexus or sustainable proof of evidence linking them to the crime. 

 They equally pleaded the higher court to invoke its powers and release them on bail pending the determination of the case against them, a request that was rejected by the appellate court yesterday. Consequently, all the accused persons were ordered to return to the Federal High Court on May 28 to continue their trial. 

 Charles, who is younger brother to the ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Henry Okah, was apprehended by the States Security Service, SSS, on allegation that he and the other accused persons, conspired with one Emmanuel Allison and made direct attempt at endangering the life of President Goodluck Jonathan by seeking to drive two motor vehicles wired with time-regulated explosive devices to the Eagle Square where the Independence celebration was taking place. 

 They were also said to have between January 2 and March 15, 2010, within Port-Harcourt Rivers State and diverse places, conspired with Henry Okah, Chima Orlu, (at large), and persons unknown and made direct attempt to endanger the lives of the Governor of Delta state, Edo state and Imo state by seeking to drive two motors vehicles wired with time regulated explosive devices into government house annex, Warri, Delta State, the venue of the Vanguard Post Amnesty Dialogue, where the said governors were in attendance, in order to cause a bomb blast for the purpose of levying war against the state. The accused persons were initially arraigned before the High Court on December 7, 2010 and subsequently re-arraigned on January 12, 2011.

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Oct 1 bombing suspect, Okah, collapses, unconscious

ONE of the suspects arrested in connection with the October 1, 2010 Independence Day bombings in Abuja, Charles Okah, reportedly collapsed inside his cell at Kuje Prisons, Abuja, at the weekend, and was rushed to the National Hospital, Abuja, by prisons’ officials.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that he had a seizure and fainted, on Friday night. He was taken to the hospital around 10.00 p.m. in a critical condition.

His lawyer, Festus Keyamo, told Sunday Vanguard, yesterday evening, “I am monitoring the situation”.

A source said Charles, a brother to Henry Okah, one of the suspected leaders of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, who is currently in detention in South-Africa and also undergoing trial over the same offense, was locked in the cell with two others.

Charles is facing trial before a Federal High Court in Abuja, along with other suspects for the Abuja bombings. One of the suspects, Francis Osovwo, alias General Gbokos, had died, March 12, in Kuje Prisons, allegedly because of the chemical substance he inhaled during a fumigation of his cell.

Our source said that Charles was met “lying on the bare floor covered in dust and dirt” by a warder on night duty.

“His blood pressure was very low and his pulse non-existent. He was later stretchered out to the prisons’ clinic, where the prison staff tried to revive him.

“They failed in their attempt. He was later carried unconscious into an ambulance and conveyed to the National Hospital, Abuja”.

Speculations were rife as the cause of the seizure. Some said it was due to intense heat which he was subjected to in his solitary cell, while others said it was due to his strange neurological and medical condition.

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South Africa postpones Okah’s trial

The man accused of masterminding two deadly bombings at 50th independence celebrations in Abuja will face trial in October after a South African court Monday delayed his case by nine months.

Henry Okah is facing trial in South Africa, where he has permanent residence, on charges that he orchestrated the twin car bombings — which killed 12 people in Abuja on October 1, 2010 — from his home in Johannesburg.

Lawyers for both sides said Monday they needed more time to prepare their arguments.

“Neither the prosecution nor the defence was in a condition to continue with the trial at the moment, so we agreed to postpone it,” Okah’s lawyer Rudi Krause told AFP.

Dressed in jeans, a black t-shirt and a blazer, Okah looked visibly thinner than his first court appearance following his arrest the day after the bombings. He was denied bail last year and has been in jail awaiting trial.

He also faces terrorism charges in connection with two explosions on March 15, 2010 in the southern Nigerian city of Warri, a major hub of the country’s oil-rich Delta region.

South Africa is trying Okah because Nigerian authorities have not applied for his extradition, said prosecutor Shaun Abrahams.

“We have extra-territorial jurisdiction. It is part of our international obligation” to try cases of terrorism, he told journalists outside the courtroom.

Okah has denied involvement in the attacks, which were claimed by the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

Prosecutors accuse Okah of being the head of MEND, which says it is fighting to give the people of the Delta more access to the region’s oil wealth.

Okah has denied being the group’s leader.

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October 1 bombing: Okah in coma, others protest in court

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Tuesday, suspended its ruling on an application filed before it by the four alleged masterminds of the 2010 Independence Day bomb blast, after it was informed that the 1st accused person, Mr. Charles Okah, was in coma at the Kuje prison clinics.

Charles who is a younger brother to the embattled ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, Mr Henry Okah, is facing terrorism charge with three others, Obi Nwabueze, Edmund Ebiware, and Tiemkemfa Francis Osvwo, a.k.a General Gbokos.

The Federal Government in the substantive charge it entered against them before the high court, alleged that they conspired with one Emmanuel Allison and made direct attempt at endangering the life of President Goodluck Jonathan by seeking to drive two motor vehicles wired with time-regulated explosive devices to the Eagle Square where the Independence celebration was taking place.

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Prosecute Boko Haram or release Okah, ex-militant leaders tell FG

SCORES of ex-militants and youth activists in the Niger Delta region yesterday described as a “miscarriage of justice” the refusal of the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute members of the Boko Haram sect over the rising spate of bomb attacks in Abuja and other parts of the North.

They held that if the government was unwilling to prosecute members of the Islamic sect and their sponsors, it should release, unconditionally, the detained Leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta Region (MEND), Mr. Henry Okah. The group, under the aegis of the Network of Freedom Fighters in Niger Delta (NIDDEMCOW), led by a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Comrade Nengi James, said the rising cases of bomb attacks and killings by Boko Haram has shown that Henry Okah is just being unjustly persecuted by the Federal Government.

A statement issued yesterday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, by James declared that failure of the Federal Government to commence criminal proceedings against the Boko Harm sect and its members would force the youths of the region to demand for the release of Okah from South African jail.

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