A suspected militant, Charles Okah, who has been in detention for the 2010 Independence Day bombing has escaped. He allegedly escaped from the Kuje Prison by scaling the prison walls.
The Nigerian Prison Service has however denied the escape and insisted that he was still in detention. He is a member and brother of the leader of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah.
Okah escaped on Friday, June 25, 2016.
Charles Okah has been on trial for the 2010 Independence Day bombing that killed 27 people during the country’s 50th independence anniversary.
The escape happened around 7:30pm and he reportedly jumped the prison walls with another inmate. Security operatives have begun a massive manhunt to apprehend him. Henry who is the senior Okah has since been convicted by a court in South Africa. MEND which used to be a notorious militancy group eventually accepted the federal government’s amnesty and stopped the destruction of pipelines and kidnap of oil workers. However, Daily Trust has reported that the news of Okah’s escape from Kuje prison is not true. Francis Enobore who is the public relations officer of the Nigerian Prisons Service claimed he was in touch with security operatives on ground and that Okah was still in detention.
He said: “It is not true, Charlse Okah is still in custody. I have been in touch with our men in the prison facility and there is nothing like that [Okah escaping].” He however admitted that there was an incident at the prison on Friday. “Yes there was an incident yesterday, but Okah was not involved.” Okah infamously tried to commit suicide in court in 2015 after he addressed Justice Gabriel Kolawole and claimed that former president, Goodluck Jonathan was responsible for his travails. He had said: “I have been incarcerated for about five years now, and I have a family to cater for.
“My children would grow up without feeling the warmth of their father. I am tired of this endless trial.” Earlier this year, Okah embarked on a hunger strike to protest against harassment by officials of the Kuje prison.
In a letter through Timi Okponipere, his counsel, Okah had addressed the minister of interior, Abdulraman Dambazau, informing him of the danger his death will pose to the country. “At the time of writing this letter, our client is as emaciated as a bean pole on account of the hunger strike he has embarked upon, to draw global attention to his plight. “Literally and figuratively speaking, our client is virtually a dead man. If our client dies in prison custody, the entire world, particularly the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta where our client hails from, shall rise in unison against President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, though our client’s ordeal began during the tenure of former president Goodluck Jonathan, a fellow Ijaw.”