Gvt to release Mend leader

2009-07-10 09:59

Abuja - Nigeria is set to free the leader of the country's most prominent militant group, officials said on Thursday, but the group said his release would not stop its attacks on the oil industry.

Henry Okah was arrested in Angola in September 2006 and repatriated to Nigeria, where he has faced charges of treason and gunrunning.

Militants in the oil-rich delta have made Okah's release one of their conditions for ending attacks on oil infrastructure and workers. Earlier this year, the group said Okah was suffering from a kidney ailment and needed urgent medical treatment abroad.

One of his lawyers, Wilson Ajuwah, said on Thursday Okah had welcomed an amnesty offer by Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua. Ajuwah said he hoped the release process would be completed by Monday or Tuesday.

Acceptance of amnesty offer

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Olusegun Adeniyi said Yar'Adua had directed Nigeria's attorney general to work with Okah's lawyer to "tidy up the legal process" for Okah's release.

"The president feels elated by the acceptance of amnesty offer by Mr Henry Okah and commends the role played by his lawyer, Mr Femi Falana in the entire process," Adeniyi said.

Okah's group, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, said the decision would not stop its attacks on the oil industry.

"We will be talking but open to attacking as well as ensuring that the damaged pipelines are not repaired. Okah was offered a deal. I do not want to see it as amnesty" Jomo Gbomo, a spokesperson  for the group, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Deeply poor

The militants say they are fighting to force the federal government to devote more oil-industry funds to the southern region, which remains deeply poor despite its natural bounty.

But the government considers most of the militants criminals who use politics to mask their true intentions - the lucrative theft and overseas sale of crude oil stolen from Nigeria's network of wells and pipelines.

Past militant attacks on oil infrastructure in the area have trimmed output in Africa's biggest oil producer by about 25%.

Last month, the Nigerian government announced a 60-day amnesty for militants willing to turn themselves in. But the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta dismissed the offer, saying an amnesty should be aimed at criminals, not "freedom fighters" , and stressing that its own members would not negotiate now.

- SAPA