Breaking News: Militant leader and Abuja bomb blast mastermind, Charles Okah, escape from prison

Sahara Reporters have disclosed that Charles Okah, a member of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) has escaped from Kuje prison.

The report claims that Charles Okah who is the brother of Henry Okah, former leader of the group escaped on Friday, June 25 by scaling the high fence of the prison walls.

Okah has been on trial for the 2010 Independence Day bombing that killed 27 people during the country’s 50th independence anniversary. The escape happened around 7:30 pm and he reportedly jumped the prison walls with another inmate and security operatives have begun a massive manhunt to apprehend him.
Henry, his elder brother has since been convicted by a court in South Africa.

Contrary to this, Daily Trust has reported that the news of Okah’s escape from Kuje prison is false.
The public relations officer of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Francis Enobore, claimed he was in touch with security operatives on ground and that Okah was still in detention.
He said:

“It is not true, Charles Okah is still in custody. I have been in touch with our men in the prison facility and there is nothing like that [Okah escaping].”

He however admitted that there was an incident at the prison on Friday. “Yes there was an incident yesterday, but Henry Okah was not involved.”

Last year, Okah however, tried to commit suicide in court after he addressed Justice Gabriel Kolawole and claimed that former president, Goodluck Jonathan was responsible for his travails.

He had said:

“I have been incarcerated for about five years now, and I have a family to cater for. “My children would grow up without feeling the warmth of their father. I am tired of this endless trial.”

Earlier this year, Okah embarked on a hunger strike to protest against harassment by officials of the Kuje prison. In a letter through Timi Okponipere, his counsel, Okah had addressed the minister of interior, Abdulraman Dambazau informing him of the danger his death will pose to the whole country.

“At the time of writing this letter, our client is as emaciated as a bean pole on account of the hunger strike he has embarked upon, to draw global attention to his plight.”

“Literally and figuratively speaking, our client is virtually a dead man. If our client dies in prison custody, the entire world, particularly the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta where our client hails from, shall rise in unison against President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, even as we concede the fact that, our client’s ordeal began during the tenure of former president Goodluck Jonathan, a fellow Ijaw,”