Henry Okah insists President Jonathan masterminded two bomb attacks

President Goodluck Jonathan

Mr. Okah says the President and his aides organized the attacks in a desperate political strategy to demonize political opponents, and win popular sympathy ahead of the 2011 elections
Henry Okah, the
detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
(MEND), blamed for the 2010 Independence Day bomb that killed at least
10 people with many more injured, is to tell a South African court the
attacks were sponsored by President Goodluck Jonathan.

That, he said, came
after the president and those working for him, had engineered similar
attacks earlier in March 2010.

“It is my belief that
President Goodluck Jonathan's government working with a faction of MEND
planned and executed the bombings of 14 March 2010 and 1 October 2010,”
Mr. Okah said in an affidavit deposed at a South African court.

The president's
spokesperson, Reuben Abati, could not be reached to comment for this
story. Calls to his mobile telephone were neither answered nor returned.

The sworn affidavit is
expected to be filed at the court between Tuesday and Wednesday as Mr.
Okah renews his bid to secure a bail after spending more than one year
in a South African jail.

His trial is set to
start October 1, 2012, exactly two years since a devastating blast that
occurred less than a kilometer from the Eagles Square in Abuja where
President Jonathan was attending Nigeria’s 50th anniversary.

The militant group,
MEND, which authorities said Mr. Okah headed, claimed responsibility for
the attack. Mr. Okah has denied membership of the group and plotting
the attacks.

Instead, in a shocking
deposition that further deepens the complexity of an already convoluted
case, Mr. Okah, who lives in South Africa, said Mr. Jonathan and his
aides organized the attacks in a desperate political strategy to
demonize political opponents, and win popular sympathy ahead of the 2011
elections.

“The purpose of the 14
March 2010 bombing in my opinion was to create an atmosphere of
insecurity in the Niger Delta where President Goodluck Jonathan at that
time, was fighting to oust the governor Mr. Emmanuel Uduaghan whom
President Goodluck Jonathan intended to replace with his Minister for
Niger Delta, Mr Godsday Orubebe,” Mr. Okah said in a 194-page
affivadavit obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

“The bombing on 1
October 2010 was a platform for the elimination of political opposition
from the north in the form of General Ibrahim 8abangida. The bombing of 1
October 2010 was also intended by the President Goodluck Jonathan
Government to create anti North sentiments nationwide in order to
galvanize support from other sections of Nigeria against other northern
candidates in the Presidential elections,” he said.

The allegations first
came to light in an interview Mr. Okah granted Arabic satellite
television, Al Jazeera in October 2010 weeks after the blast. In the
interview, he blamed the attacks on Mr. Jonathan’s aides and claimed he
was arrested for refusing to influence MEND, to retract its claim of
responsibility.

Since then, Mr. Okah
has been denied bail at least twice, with one at the South Gauteng High
court, Johannesburg where he is filing a new application for bail based
on “new facts.”
Ahead
of the start of trial October, Mr. Okah confirmed he has been availed
with the details of evidences planned to be used against him.

The statements and
exhibits, contained in a police docket obtained by the investigating
officer, bear allegations the Nigerian government- now through its South
African counterpart- put forward against the alleged former militant
leader.

The previously known
details contain claims of alleged phone communication between Mr. Okah
and the those who carried out the attacks, allegedly on his orders,
computer records, photographs purporting to show incriminating images
and other materials.

His new appeal for
bail is based on those evidences which he describes as being “extremely
weak”. Mr. Okah said none of the exhibits had been substantiated to be
linking him to the crime, and concluded that based on those claims, “It
was unlikely that the state will be successful in a criminal prosecution
against me.”

Despite Mr. Okah’s
repeated denials of links to MEND and its attacks, his narration paints a
picture of a former powerful figure whose influence over ex-militants,
was courted by politicians, in the same breath regarded as a threat.

He spoke with Mr.
Jonathan several times on phone, a telltale aspect of a long-standing
relationship he said started in 1999 while the president was the deputy
governor in Bayelsa state.

While the nation faced
a leadership crisis during the sickness of late President Umar Yar’adua
in 2009, Mr. Okah emerged a prominent figure in the aftermath of a
successful amnesty programme for the Niger Delta militant, initiated by
Mr. Yar’adua.

Politicians knew he
could influence the ex-fighters and even what continued to go on in the
oil rich creeks. It was a role President Jonathan needed, Mr. Okah’s
statement pointed out, as did prospective opponents for the 2011
election like former military ruler, Mr. Babangida, and even current
petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

Mr. Jonathan
repeatedly sent his aides, including Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta
minister), Oronto Douglas, and others to him in South Africa, to seek
his support, he said.
His indifference, amid reports he was rooting for Mr.
Babangida, as well as his refusal to rein MEND in on the statement,
informed his arrest, Mr. Okah said.

He claim he was close
to Jonathan so much so, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, then a minister of Mines
and Steel, needed his support for President Jonathan to pick her ahead
of Odein Ajumogobia, for the petroleum slot.

“The last call I
received from Ms Madueke was at 6:41:35 on 4 April 2010 during which she
thanked me for my contribution in influencing her appointment as
Minister of Petroleum,” he said.

He said he was in
touch with the president’s close aides when the October 1, 2010 bomb
came off, and had no inkling his arrest was being planned.