The man convicted of
masterminding the 2010 Independence Day anniversary in Abuja, Charles Okah,
claims he is dying slowly in prison owning to lack of access to medical
treatment.
Okah who is currently confined in
the Maiduguri prison says he has been living with a kidney in the last 37 years
but his condition is deteriorating in prison.
He wants the Comptroller-General
of Nigerian Correctional Service, Ja’afaru Ahmed to either transfer him to
Abuja or Lagos for better care.
Okah was jailed for life with his
co-defendant, Obi Nwabueze, for masterminding the bomb blasts which occurred in
Abuja on October 1, 2010 and, earlier in Warri, Delta State, on March 15 of the
same year in a court presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole.
The two convicts were said to
have conspired with Henry Okah, who was the leader of the defunct Movement for
the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND).
Henry was jailed by a South
African court in 2013 for similar offences and sentenced to 24 years’
imprisonment.
The conviction is currently
before the Court of Appeal.
But Okah said he is almost losing
the only kidney left with him.
His plea was contained in a
September 3, 2019 letter to the Comptroller-General by his counsel, C. A.
Mishael.
Mishael said “We are solicitor to
Mr. Charles Tombra Okah (our client) who is presently under your custody at the
Maximum Security Prisons. Borno State. His conviction by Federal High Court
Abuja is currently the subject of appeal at the Court of Appeal. Abuja.
“Our client has been living on a
single kidney for the past 37 years and this fact, without gainsaying, makes it
imperative for constant medical attention which he has not been getting at the
Maiduguri Maximum Prisons.
“While he was being held at the
Kuje Prisons, he had access to medical experts at the National Hospital Abuja.
“More recently, our client has
been experiencing uncontrolled hand tremor and has been passing blood in his
urine. He also has developed other ailments that require urgent and expert
medical review.
“The Maximum Security Prison in
Maiduguri Borno State, where he is presently being held lacks both the
expertise and facilities to treat our client of the kidney related ailments and
other health challenges he is currently facing.
“We therefore apply that the
controller in Maiduguri be directed to grant our client permission to attend a
medical facility that has the facility to adequately treat him.
“In the alternative, we apply
that our client be transferred back to Abuja or Lagos Prisons from where he can
have access to proper medical treatment.
“While we anticipate your usual
cooperation, please accept the assurances of our highest consideration.”
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