By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA – A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, gave the Federal Government 72 hours to query authorities of the Kuje prison over allegation that it is subjecting Mr Charles Okah and three other persons accused of masterminding the 2010 Independence Day bombing, to intense torture in their detention cells.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole gave the directive  after counsel to Charles, who is a younger brother to the embattled ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Mr Henry Okah, alleged that the health of his client had deteriorated, considering that he was compelled to inhale toxicant substances.

His lawyer, Mr Oghenovo Otemu, told the court  that prison officers guiding his client, Okah, on daily basis, lock him up and fumigate his cell.

He urged the court to take judicial notice of how frail the accused person who coughed throughout the proceeding looked, stressing that the end of justice would be defeated if he dies in detention without the case against him proved.

Just as he was about to move his application, urging the court to stay further proceeding in the matter pending the hearing and determination of an appeal they have lodged  before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, Okah, went into a fist of cough, a situation that led the judge to order the court clerk to go in search of water for him.

The judge, while mandating government lawyer, Dr Alex Iziyon, SAN, to ensure that the prison authorities were meant to answer to the allegation, further directed the Superintendent of Kuje Prison to take the accused to hospital.

Meantime, he yesterday fixed December 20 for ruling on the application asking him to stay the trial pending the outcome of the appeal.