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How long have you been held in prison and what are the current conditions under which you are being held?
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have my voice heard through your widely read and respected newspaper. There is no pain on earth that doesn’t crave a benevolent witness. I have been held in prison custody as an ‘awaiting trial’ inmate since December 24, 2010. Prior to this time, I had spent two months and eight days at the headquarters of the Directorate of State Security (DSS), Abuja on the bare floor of a subterranean dungeon after my arrest along with my son on Saturday, October 16, 2010, at my residence in Apapa GRA, Lagos on trumped-up charges relating to the October 1, 2010 Independence Day bombing. My conditions only improved remarkably from October 8, 2014 after threat of a lawsuit I filed against the Prisons and Interior Minister, as well as intervention from the International Red Cross and British High Commission, who had earlier visited the Kuje Prison, Abuja, where I am currently remanded and seeing first hand, the appalling, inhuman and punitive conditions I was being held. The British High Commission completely renovated the block, making it fit for human habitation. Basic amenities like sleeping beds, light and water were installed, and ventilation and natural lighting improved. The Red Cross on their part provided mattresses, mosquito nets, blankets, and ensured medicines were made available to inmates who previously had to purchase drugs prescribed by the clinic. This was an absurd arrangement, considering that these medicines are factored into their budget and many inmates have no financial support from families who have long abandoned them. Currently, I exercise outdoors, read books and attend church where I sing in the choir. All of the above were previously denied me by a satanic order that came from ‘above’. I still make private arrangements for my feeding as the official ration is horrible. Compared to other detention facilities, I am told the food in Kuje is better. I have witnessed half-starved young men with ‘xylophone ribs’, sunken cheeks, thin necks and ‘gangling arms’ transferred from the custody of the Army, DSS and Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), gain weight after few months in Kuje Prison. I no longer encounter snakes and scorpions in my cell, except for rats. The prison is infested with these vermin after all the cats which managed to control the rat population were eaten by inmates to supplement their protein intake.
What change has the transfer of power to a new administration had on those conditions?
Aside from a remarkable improvement in the power supply, the status quo since October 8, 2014 has not changed. With the wind of change blowing its sweet breeze over a raped nation, I expect that I will be given a speedy trial to put an end to this inherited charade. My health is not too good at the moment as my only kidney retains water (hydronephrosis), causing pain and discomfort. The court ruled on June 25 that I should be taken to the National Hospital in 48 hours. I am long overdue for a thorough medical check-up abroad in the hospital where I donated my left kidney to save another life. A case mate, one Francis Osuwo, who I met for the first time at the DSS, died in Kuje Prison right before my eyes in 2012 after succumbing to reactions to the fumigant sprayed into our cells while still locked inside. Francis never got the opportunity to defend himself on charges of complicity in the March 2010 bombing in Warri, Delta State. I do not want to face a similar fate and hope my long overdue trial can end so that my reputation can be redeemed.
In the past you had run-ins with the prison authorities. What is the nature of your relationship now?
The situation has improved to the mutual benefit of both parties. After my bail request was denied in December 2010, the presiding judge granted my application to be remanded in prison. The DSS were not happy I was slipping from their clutches where they believed my stay with them would make it easier to torture, coerce or bribe me into implicating myself and other perceived enemies and critics of Goodluck Jonathan. So, in order to stampede me into trial at a time when both passion and prejudice had not yet dissipated, they imposed their oppressive punitive detention style on the Prison Service officials who were too timid and intimidated to refuse the interference and meddlesomeness of one independent service over another. Now, it seems the leadership of the Prisons now have a mind of their own.
How much confidence do you have that the process you are passing through will deliver justice in the end?
My trial only started proper about two months ago. I have some confidence in the judicial system when there is no interference. I also have confidence in the trial judge who I have observed from the dock to be a man of integrity. If the prosecution can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt with evidence that links me to the so-called assassination attempt on former President Jonathan, then the judge will have no qualms in sentencing me to death. But where he finds out that the prosecution relied on assumptions, wild conjecture, hearsay, fabricated evidence and a shoddy investigation, he will set me free to build back the lost years.
Do you think the exit of former President Goodluck Jonathan could affect the eventual outcome?
Absolutely! The entire charges are trumped-up. Two days after my arrest, during interrogation, I was thrown a life line by my captors. A typical Nigerian quid pro quo…They offered me my freedom and that of my son, including promises of lucrative contracts in exchange for providing false statements to implicate myself and betray my younger brother, Henry, and implicate political threats and staunch critics at the time, such as former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, present Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El Rufai, former Bayelsa Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva and a few others as conspirators in a bogus assassination attempt on Goodluck Jonathan at the Eagle Square during the Independence Day celebrations by means of car bombs on the 1st of October, 2010. I bluntly refused to be compromised, tossing the line back at them with disdain. I knew from that moment that I was marked for destruction. Now that my adversary has been swept out of power by the peoples’ brooms of change into the dust bin of history, I can now expect to face a fair, impartial trial in an independent court of law.
Would you say the Jonathan presidency was a plus or minus for the Niger Delta struggle?
Of course it is an obvious minus for the Niger Delta region as Goodluck Jonathan was not prepared or cut out for leadership. Coupled with stark corruption and a lack of vision, the region has not progressed by way of political gain and infrastructural development. Thugs became instant billionaires, lavishing this sudden wealth on luxury items without any management skills to maintain it for the long term. His government created dependants from a fraudulent unsustainable amnesty programme where grown men have become lazy, lacking creativity and reliant on monthly handouts which they hope will be perpetual. The root issues which created militancy were never addressed. Today, we are worse off because our opportunity has been wasted. Like my brother Henry said in an interview with your paper, it is morally wrong to expect so much from President Buhari what we could not demand from Jonathan in six years. The Niger Delta had never been at peace during the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan. The attacks on oil installations by militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) only recently ceased after a unilateral ceasefire in May 30, 2014 that was squandered by the Jonathan government. Pirates and other criminal gangs had a field day. The unrest was constantly covered up by the propaganda machinery he put in place to give a semblance of peace, while millions of dollars were lost due to production disruptions, gas and crude oil pipeline attacks and vandalisation, oil theft, piracy, kidnappings, etc.
Some former militants like Asari Dokubo had warned of a return of militancy in the Niger Delta if Jonathan wasn’t reelected. Now that he’s out, do you see the upheavals of the past returning to the region?
Now that the Nigerian people voted Goodluck out of power with total disregard to the threats of some so-called ex-militants, including Asari Dokubo, he has been exposed as a coward and noise maker. He is so used to easy and ostentatious life style made possible by questionable contracts. His threat of returning to the creeks and militancy from the comfort of his air-conditioned hotel room is only a bluff. Besides, armed fighters inside the creeks will not welcome him with open hands.
What should the Buhari administration do to sustain the relative calm which has prevailed in the Niger Delta in the last few years?
Like I mentioned earlier, there has been nothing like relative peace in the Niger Delta, but only a cover-up. Mr. President should facilitate the release of political prisoners like Henry, who is being held hostage in South Africa where his sham trial and conviction had the hand of the Jonathan government with the tacit support of Jacob Zuma. The Niger Delta is sitting on huge gas and oil reserves and those who have threatened war can only be neutralised by my brother who has the respect of several fighters from the different tribes. The president can then proceed to discuss the root issues affecting the region with genuine leaders and activists.
Your brother, Henry, currently servicing a jail term in South Africa is often projected in different light by different people. Some see him as a dangerous terrorist, while others say he’s a good man concerned about the welfare of his people and region. Who is the real Henry Okah?
Henry has always been a courageous, intelligent and altruistic person. His word is his bond. With the advent of extremist insurgents in the North-East of Nigeria, a ‘dangerous terrorist’ can now be defined by even a child in kindergarten. My brother is not a terrorist. Some of his harshest critics are those who were fellow travelers with him in the Niger Delta struggle.
What went wrong between them?
These envious critics and betrayers, chief among them being Asari Dokubo, lack foresight. Today, with the end of the Jonathan government, it is clear to all if Henry’s position was wrong or right. Henry vehemently opposed the amnesty programme of the government because it made no provision for dialogue whatsoever. Henry refused to be bribed with an oil block or pipeline and waterway security contracts, amongst others. His problem with his critics stems from his insistence that there must be dialogue before disarmament for the Niger Delta question to be addressed. He was opposed to the monumental fraud in the amnesty programme and his blunt message to Jonathan was that the struggle was not about the Ijaws alone or a Jonathan presidency.
How hopeful are you that his sentence would be overturned by the South African Supreme Court?
For a High Court in South Africa to rule for the arrest of the Sudanese President indicates there is hope in its judicial system and they have the political will to confront evil. The lower court where Henry was tried in a sham trial lacked jurisdiction to have tried him in the first place. I am optimistic my brother will be set free by the appellate court.
Do you have a message for the new Nigerian government?
First of all, I want to use this opportunity to congratulate a resilient President Buhari on his well-deserved victory in spite of the massive and sustained smear campaign launched by political opponents against his emergence as President. Having now assumed the reins of power, I expect Mr. President to probe the immediate past administration and ensure that looted funds and ill-gotten assets worldwide are recovered. I also expect that he will give robust attention and focus to the Niger Delta region by appointing men of proven integrity to engage the region…
Apart from the huge debt and an empty treasury, the new government has inherited from the past one, political detainees and an unjust system where many of our compatriots are languishing in prison for years awaiting trial – Because the mere act of filing charges in Nigeria carries along with it a strong presumption of guilt, prosecutors have the upper hand and have dumped and forgotten so many in the prisons while trials drag on for years. This injustice should be addressed as they impact negatively on the wider society. Those still awaiting trial are presumed innocent and as such should not suffer. I have observed that there are men here whose trials have not been concluded for over ten years due to one flimsy excuse or another. Their businesses, like mine, have collapsed.
Jobs are lost and relationships are affected. Without conjugal visits for people presumed innocent, spouses, especially newly married ones, would have a forced family planning imposed on them. They are exposed to temptation at the outside, giving room to infidelity and divorce. Years apart often dissolves emotional bonds between husbands and wives and for small children who had never really known their jailed parents, there are no bonds to be dissolved. If my five year old son is brought before me today, I will not recognise him.
-The Nation
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