Henry Okah, the detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday accused aides of President Goodluck Jonathan of trying to falsely persuade him to blame the Independence Day bombing in Abuja on northern politicians.
The MEND leader made this allegation Tuesday in an interview with Al Jazeera, the United Arab Emirates-based television station, conducted by telephone from the South African prison where he is being held on terrorism charges. He said that a “close aide” of the president had prevailed on him to urge the militant group to withdraw its claim that it was responsible for the bombings in which 16 people were killed and several others injured. “On Saturday morning, just a day after the attack, a very close associate of President Jonathan called me and explained to me that there had been a bombing in Nigeria and that President Jonathan wanted me to reach out to the group, MEND, and get them to retract the earlier statement they had issued claiming the attacks.”
According to him, “They wanted to blame the attacks on northerners who are trying to fight against him [Jonathan] to come back as president and if this was done, I was not going to have any problems with the South African government.”
Mr. Okah alleged that despite the promised reprieve, “I declined to do this and a few hours later I was arrested. It was based on their belief that I was going to do that that Jonathan issued a statement saying that MEND did not carry out the attack.”
The presidency moved quickly to deny the politically damaging and potentially incriminating allegation, saying it was all made up by the militant leader. “This of course is an outright lie, and we challenge Okah to name the President’s aide that spoke to him on the subject. There is an ongoing investigation on Okah’s alleged involvement in the bombings in Nigeria. In South Africa, he has already been charged to court. He should face the charges, and stop making frivolous claims,” presidential spokesman Ima Niboro said in a statement.
He asked Mr. Okah to name the aide who spoke to him. “There is no question that Okah is a drowning man determined to pull others down with him, and there is hardly any purpose to be served by joining issues with an accused mass murderer. Okah is a man who has been known to say one thing and do another, and we are not at all surprised by his diversionary rhetoric.”
The allegation, which is certain to generate controversy, is lent some credence by Mr. Jonathan’s statement shortly after the blasts that MEND was not responsible for the dastardly act. He had said the bomb blasts were the work of a terrorist group hiding under the umbrella of the movement.
Mr. Jonathan had said, “We have contacted other members of MEND and they say they know nothing about it. Anybody that hides under the umbrella of MEND to carry out those acts will be exposed.” It is however unclear how the president came to this conclusion because at the time he cleared the group of responsibility investigations by security agencies were still ongoing..
The president’s statement also ran contrary to that of the group which claimed it was responsible and blamed the loss of lives on security agents. It said, ‘‘The irresponsible attitude of the government security forces is to blame for the loss of lives. They were given five days prior notice which led to the harassment of Henry Okah on Thursday (September 30) in South Africa.’’
