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Niger Delta Oil Rebel to Appear in Court for First Time

Nigeria Today
3rd April'08

A rebel leader from the Niger Delta will appear in court for the first time today to be formally charged with treason, one of his lawyers said on Wednesday. Henry Okah is the suspected leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose 2006 campaign of pipeline bombings and kidnappings of foreign oil workers forced the closure of a fifth of Nigerian crude output.

Okah was arrested in Angola last September and handed over to Nigeria on Feb. 14. He has yet to be seen in public and his detention in a secret location has angered many militants in the delta, jeopardising government efforts to make peace with them. Okah still commands loyalty from several well-armed rebel factions in the creeks of the delta, and militant sources say they are waiting to see how his trial will be conducted before deciding whether to resume their armed struggle. Disruptions to oil supplies from the Niger Delta are one of the factors that have fuelled oil's rally to record high prices.

Prosecutors last month revealed 14 charges against Okah, who was accused of gun-running and conspiring to wage war on the government. He faces the death penalty if convicted. The MEND sent an email to reporters on Wednesday saying Okah and Edward Atatah, who was arrested at the same time as Okah and is facing similar charges, would be arraigned at a Federal High Court in the central city of Jos on Thursday.

A member of Okah's legal team, who did not wish to be named because the case is sensitive, confirmed the planned court appearance and said the proceedings would take place behind closed doors. "We are going to file an application for the trial to be in open court but for now we have been told that it will be in camera," the lawyer said. Okah's case is reminiscent of the 2005 arrest and trial for treason of another prominent Niger Delta militant, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, which was one of the factors that spawned the MEND and caused the upsurge of violence in 2006. Asari was eventually freed in 2007 in a political decision after a change of government.

The problems in the delta are rooted in poverty and corruption. Five decades of oil extraction have polluted the air, land and water and enriched foreign oil companies and corrupt governments. But local communities have little to show for the oil wealth springing from their lands. Groups like the MEND say they are fighting to redress injustice and secure greater local control of oil wealth. In reality the lines between political struggle and common criminality are blurred. Abductions for ransom, crude oil smuggling, arms dealing, piracy and armed robberies are all lucrative activities for armed gangs in the lawless creeks.

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