Posted by By FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa on
Tension is building up in the creeks of Bayelsa State following conflicting reports about the death of the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah.
Tension is building up in the creeks of Bayelsa State following conflicting reports about the death of the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah.
This is even as MEND has challenged the Federal Government to prove that Okah is alive by allowing access to him.
Okah, whose extradition from Angola has been a subject of controversy, was said to have died from wounds sustained when bullets hit him in the abdomen during interrogation.
Spokesman of the Presidency, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, had dismissed the report, stressing that Okah was in safe custody.
Unsatisfied by the explanation, MEND has tasked the Federal Government to allow Okah access to his legal representatives. It disclosed that Mr. Femi Falana has volunteered to represent Okah in the court.
The statement read: 'Following the weak denial by the Nigerian government spokesman over the killing of Comrade Henry Okah, the government must go a step further by allowing access to his legal representatives, family, pastor and the International Red Cross or similar body for an independent verification that he is alive and never tortured.
'It was very irresponsible of the Federal Government of Nigeria, in the first place, to receive him and the other individual and then keep mute.
'Mr Femi Falana has accepted to legally represent Henry Okah and Edward Atatah. We are confident that Mr. Falana, who also represented the late Ken Saro Wiwa, will ensure justice till the rule of law triumphs."
The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), joining the fray, in a statement by Cynthia Whyte, also noted that the arrest, extradition and current torture of Okah were a culmination of grand conspiracy orchestrated by oil companies operating in Nigeria with the active connivance of the Federal Government.
The group, therefore, asked for the freedom to prepare for war to free the region.
Investigations by Daily Sun revealed that the Joint Military Task Force has been placed on alert to thwart any militant attack on oil installations.
A source at the JTF told Daily Sun that security had also been beefed up in and around the creeks, especially Nembe creeks because of visitors coming to attend the coronation of the former Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, as the Amanayanbo of Nembe on Saturday, February 23.