- Charles Okah, convicted over the October 1, 2010, Independence Day bombing in Abuja, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a presidential pardon after spending nearly 16 years in custody.
- Okah decried being placed in solitary confinement for over 501 days at the Maiduguri Maximum Security Correctional Centre, claiming it is punishment for exposing correctional officers allegedly forging court warrants to release inmates.
- Living on a single kidney for 37 years, Okah revealed that his health is failing rapidly, citing severe medical symptoms and lack of access to specialized medical care.
- He pointed to the case of his co-convict, Edmund Ebiware, who was granted presidential clemency in 2022 by former President Muhammadu Buhari despite serving a similar life sentence.
After spending nearly 16 years behind bars, Charles Okah, one of the primary figures convicted in connection with the October 1, 2010, Independence Day bomb blast in Abuja, has made an urgent appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a state pardon to save his life and end what he describes as punitive victimisation inside the Nigerian correctional system.
Eko Hot Blog reports that speaking from the Maiduguri Maximum Security Correctional Centre in Borno State, Okah revealed that he has been held in solitary confinement for more than 501 consecutive days.
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He asserted that his prolonged isolation from other inmates is not due to any disciplinary infraction, but rather a direct retaliation for whistleblowing on corruption within the prison service.
According to Okah, he officially reported to the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, that certain officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service were allegedly forging court warrants to facilitate the illegal release of prison inmates.
Rather than investigating the perpetrators, Okah claimed he was targeted, isolated, and subjected to harsh solitary conditions to silence him.
Expressing deep psychological and physical strain, Okah urged President Tinubu to look into the merits of his case on humanitarian grounds.
He stressed that he has spent roughly 16 years in detention since his initial arrest in 2010 and maintains that he has valuable contributions to make to the nation outside prison walls.
He noted that a similar act of executive clemency was extended in 2022 by late former President Muhammadu Buhari to Edmund Ebiware, who was tried alongside him and handed a life sentence before being released.
Okah’s plea comes amid severe concerns over his rapidly declining health. Having lived on a single kidney for over 37 years, he warned that his remaining organ is on the verge of total failure due to a lack of adequate medical facilities and specialized care at the Maiduguri facility.
Legal correspondence previously sent by his defense counsel to the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service highlighted that while Okah was previously held at Kuje Prison in Abuja, he had regular access to medical experts at the National Hospital.
Since his transfer to Maiduguri, however, he has suffered from uncontrolled hand tremors, passing blood in his urine, and other severe kidney-related ailments that require immediate specialist review and potential relocation to a better-equipped medical facility in Lagos or Abuja.
Okah, alongside his co-defendant Obi Nwabueze, was sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2018 by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The court found them guilty of masterminding the 2010 Independence Day twin car bombings near Eagle Square in Abuja, which resulted in at least 12 deaths and numerous injuries, as well as an earlier blast in Warri, Delta State.
Prosecutors linked the acts to Henry Okah, leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who was separately convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison by a South African court in 2013.
Maintaining his stance of innocence regarding the bomb blast, Okah expressed optimism that President Tinubu’s administration will review his petition, address his deteriorating health, and grant him the freedom to rebuild his life after nearly two decades in detention.
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