A key militant in Nigeria’s southern Niger Delta detained since September 2007 has accepted President Umaru Yar’Adua recent offer of unconditional amnesty, his lawyer said on Thursday.
”Henry Okah has accepted the unconditional amnesty as offered by President Yar’Adua,” Femi Falana said.
Yar’Adua on June 25 declared an unconditional pardon for armed groups who say they are fighting for a greater share of the oil wealth. The amnesty offer remains open until October 4.
”He [Okah] is worried about his deteriorating state of health in detention and he wants to be released soonest,” he said.
Falana, a human rights activist, said that his client ”has not yet signed any formal document on his acceptance of the amnesty offer as talks were ongoing between government officials and his lawyers on details of his release.”
Yar’Adua is upbeat about the militant’s acceptance of his amnesty offer, presidential spokesperson Olusegun Adeniyi said.
”The president feels elated by the acceptance of amnesty offer by Mr Henry Okah,” Adeniyi said in a statement sent from Italy.
”Before he left Abuja yesterday [Wednesday], the president mandated the attorney general of the federation to work with Falana to tidy up the legal process so that Okah’s release can be effected,” he stated.
Yar’Adua, who arrived on Thursday in L’Aquila, Italy, for the Group of Eight summit, urged the remaining militant leaders ”to avail themselves of the amnesty offer so as to pave the way for peace and rapid development in the Niger Delta”.
Okah, who before his arrest was believed to be the chief spokesperson for the region’s most prominent militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), is facing treason charges.
”We support Henry Okah’s decision to accept any deal that will ensure his early release to attend to his failing health under the current circumstances,” Mend said in a statement.
Attacks by armed groups on oil facilities in the Niger Delta are costing hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude a day. Hundreds of oil workers have been kidnapped.
Mend has claimed responsibility for most of these attacks on oil facilities and workers.
Violence in the southern region of the world’s eight-largest crude exporter has cut output by more than 30% over the past three and a half years.
The state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation paints a grim picture of the fallout of the violence.
It said monthly oil revenue this year dropped to around $1-billion from an average of $2,2-billion in 2008. — Sapa-AFP