‘Prosecute Boko Haram members or release Okah’

By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa – Former  militants and youth activists in the Niger Delta region have described as a “miscarriage of justice” the refusal of the Federal Government to arrest and prosecute members of the Boko Haram sect in the wake of the spate of bomb attacks in Abuja and other parts of the North.

They said that such weakness on the part of the Federal Government should immediately lead to the unconditional release of the detained leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta Region, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah.

The group of former militants and youth activists, under the aegis of the Network of Freedom Fighters in Niger Delta, NIDDEMCOW, led by a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Mr. Nengi James, said the rising cases of bomb attacks and the killings by Boko Haram had vindicated the MEND leader, Okah, as a man unjustly persecuted by the Federal Government.

The group, in a statement in Yenagoa, said the failure of the Federal Government to commence criminal proceedings of members of the Boko Haram sect amounted to double standard and demanded for the release of the MEND leader, from South African jail.

The group said: “We condemn the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja and the killing of innocent citizens. It has equally vindicated Henry Okah.

“We call on the Federal Government to release the MEND leader from jail if the Boko Haram members are to be released un-prosecuted. We are worried over the non-prosecution of the Boko Haram sect members after several bloody attacks and bombing in the country.”