Henry Okah gets 24 years jail term

A SOUTH African court on Tuesday jailed Nigerian national, Henry Okah for 24 years after he was convicted of 13 terrorism charges over twin bombings in Abuja in 2010.

“Effectively, the accused Okah is therefore sentenced to 24 years imprisonment,” said Judge Neels Claassen.

He was found guilty of 13 terrorism-related charges over twin car bombings during Nigeria's independence day celebrations in 2010. At least 12 people were killed and 36 others injured.

Okah led a group which said it was fighting to help Niger Delta residents gain a greater share of the oil wealth.

Meanwhile, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it  received with incredulity the 24 years sentence planned on Henry Okah after a sham trial in a South African kangaroo court.

MEND's spokesperson, Jomo Gbomo said the group is  disappointed but not surprised that the South African judiciary have allowed itself to be compromised by the highly corrupt Nigerian government.

 "The governments of South Africa and Nigerian should realise that this planned sentencing of Henry Okah would not in any way, shape or form, change our struggle as we will remain dedicated to our cause until we achieve full justice and emancipation for the Niger Delta and its people,".

The court established that Okah was the former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, {MEND}. He also received a 13-year jail term for threats made to the South African government after his arrest in October 2010 but this runs concurrently with his 24-year sentence.

The judge found that the state had proven Okah's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt because he didn't testify in his own defence during the trial.

He had repeatedly denied any involvement in the bombings.

Prosecutors have argued that although Okah is not a South Africa citizen, the country had the jurisdiction to try him under the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act.

Analysts believe it would have been too dangerous for him to be tried in Nigeria because of the presence of his militant supporters.

Okah is thought to be the first foreign national to be tried for terrorism in South Africa. He has been in custody since his arrest in October 2010, a day after the Abuja bombings.

Okah was arrested on gun-running charges in Angola in 2007 and then transferred to Nigeria but never convicted.

He was released after two years under an amnesty for oil militants and he returned to South Africa, where he had lived since 2003.

The 48-year-old was first arrested in February 2008 in Angola and then deported to Nigeria on a 62-count charge of treason, terrorism, illegal possession of firearms and arms trafficking.

 Okah accepted late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s Presidential Amnesty Programme and was consequently freed on 13th July 2009. But he was rearrested on 2nd October 2010 — a day after the 2010 Independence Day bombing — in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the trial began on 1st October 2012, exactly two years after the bombing.