A Nigerian organisation representing the Ijaw people, the predominant ethnic group in the oil-rich Niger Delta, has petitioned South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling for the immediate release of jailed militant leader Henry Okah.
Okah, 60, is serving a 24-year prison sentence for his role in two car bombings in Nigeria in 2010, attacks claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), an armed group advocating for greater local control of the region’s oil resources and protesting environmental damage caused by oil production.
The Ijaw Nation Forum, which represents people of the ethnic nationality in Nigeria and the diaspora, in its petition calls for the “prompt, unconditional, and safe release of our son, Henry Okah, who has been unjustly incarcerated in South Africa since the 2nd of October 2010.”
Okah, who was a resident of South Africa prior to his imprisonment, is widely recognized as the leader of the group