A prominent Ijaw organisation has petitioned South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, demanding the release of Henry Okah, leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who is serving a 24-year prison sentence in South Africa.
Okah, 60, a former South African resident, was convicted in 2013 over his alleged role in two car bombings in Abuja in 2010, attacks claimed by MEND.
The group had long campaigned for greater local control of the Niger Delta’s oil wealth and protested against environmental devastation caused by crude oil exploration.
The petition, submitted by the Ijaw Nation Forum (INF), accused South African authorities of carrying out a flawed process that led to Okah’s incarceration.
The Forum insists his arrest by the Directorate of Priority Crimes, known as the Hawks, was unlawful, arguing that only Interpol’s South African office was authorised to execute such an action under the country’s anti-terrorism laws.
In its statement, the INF described Okah’s imprisonment as “an unwarranted intervention by South Africa in Nigeria’s internal conflict,” stressing that no formal complaint was lodged by the Nigerian government over his alleged role in the Niger Delta unrest.
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“The armed conflict in the Niger Delta has at all times been a quest for self-determination, a manifestation of a people’s collective will to resist oppression, aggression and subjugation by a collaboration of the Nigerian state and Western multinational corporations extracting petroleum riches from our land,” the group said.
The petition received support from Niger Delta traditional rulers, community leaders and activists, including Alfred Diette-Spiff, the Amanyanabo of Twon-Brass and former governor of Rivers State, and Felix Tuodolo, a former president of the Ijaw Youths Council.
While condemning violence, the Forum argued that figures such as Okah had “legitimate and compelling reasons” for resisting the Nigerian state’s exploitation of the Niger Delta.
“We shall no longer remain passive observers while an individual who has dedicated the greater part of his life to championing justice for his people continues to be subjected to an even graver injustice,,” the group added.
The Ijaw Nation Forum, founded in 1995 to advance dialogue and safeguard the interests of the Ijaw people, said the petition was delivered to the South African Presidency by Kabowei Akamande, a US-based Ijaw activist.
