Henry Okah, leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has disclose that he was arrested because he refused to tell the group to retract a statement claiming responsibility for the bomb attacks on Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Okah, who is currently being remanded in a South African prison disclosed to a TV station that he received a phone call from a "close associate" of President Goodluck Jonathan, telling him to urge the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to withdraw its claim for the bombings, which killed at least 12 people and left 36 others injured on the 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence. According to Okah, "on Saturday morning, just a day after the attack, a very close associate of President Jonathan called me and explained to me that there had been a bombing in Nigeria and that President Jonathan wanted me to reach out to MEND, and get them to retract the earlier statement they had issued claiming responsibility for the attacks," Speaking further, Okah said "they wanted to blame the attacks on northerners who are trying to fight against him [President Jonathan] to come back as President and if this was done, I was not going to have any problems with the South African government. I declined to do this and a few hours later I was arrested. It was based on their belief that I was going to do that that the President issued a statement saying that MEND did not carry out the attack." The President had disclosed to newsmen after his visit to the victims of the bomb blast that MEND did not carry out the attacks. He blamed it on a small terrorist group outside Nigeria. The President said “we know the perpetrators and we know their sponsors and by the grace of God, some of them will face the law”



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