7th December, 2010
He may be shackled, but he is not silenced. From his prison cell in South Africa, Nigeriaâ€
Okah, who is on trial in South Africa on terrorism charges, said thereâ€
“There are thousands of people who are willing to fight and theyâ€
“If I can have access to weapons, Iâ€
His comments came as fighters of the Niger Delta Liberation Front ruptured a pipeline belonging to the state-owned oil company on Dec. 5, the group said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. MEND, which claimed responsibility for recent attacks, said in an e-mail last week it was planning new assaults on the oil industry.
Okah, 45, was arrested in Johannesburg after two car bombs exploded in Abuja, on October 1, as President Goodluck Jonathan was marking Nigeriaâ€
Attacks in the delta by armed groups including MEND cut more than 28 percent of the countryâ€
While he denied being the leader of MEND, Okah said he has influence among various armed groups, who, he said, “call me master.â€
Nigeria is Africaâ€
Angolan authorities arrested Okah, a resident in South Africa, in 2007 on suspicion of arms trafficking. He was later deported to Nigeria, where he was put on trial on 62 charges, including capital offenses of treason and terrorism.
Okah was freed under an amnesty plan initiated in August last year by former President Umaru Yarâ€
Even if rebel commanders surrender under the terms of the amnesty, others will take their place, Okah said. “Itâ€
The Nigerian military has stepped up raids against militant camps in the past month in response to a renewed surge in attacks by the rebels. The increased violence followed a period of relative calm when thousands of fighters disarmed under the amnesty.
Troops raided a militant camp south of the oil-industry hub of Port Harcourt last month, freeing foreign hostages, including an American, two French nationals, two Indonesians and a Canadian, seized by MEND fighters. Camps operated by another militant group, the Niger Delta Liberation Force, or NDLF, have come under air and ground attack since last week.
“The military should have a better way of dealing with the individuals theyâ€
“Entire communities are being targeted and punished. When an individual is wanted, a whole community shouldnâ€
Military spokesman, Colonel Timothy Antigha, denied civilians were being targeted, saying in a December 2 phone interview that “a civilian has no business in a camp where there are machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons and dynamite.â€
While both Okah and Jonathan are ethnic Ijaws, the dominant ethnic group in the region, Okah said the Nigerian president lacks the vision to manage the grievances of different parts of Africaâ€
“The Niger delta is just one part of the country; everybody in Nigeria has grievances,†he said. “Can Jonathan manage all these grievances? The answer is no.â€
Presidential spokesman, Ima Niboro, dismissed Okahâ€
“Okah is talking nonsense, all heâ€