Tarila Okah
In an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, Tarila Okah, the
pretty daughter of Charles Okah - alleged mastermind of the 2010
Independence Day bombings, has alleged that her father is being
frustrated by the judiciary, and appealed to the federal government to
release him, saying that there has been no compelling evidence against
Okah over the last six years that he has spent at the Kuje Prison in
Abuja.
She argued that having spent six years in detention, her father is
entitled to bail under the constitution, lamenting that her family had
been subjected to “unjust punishment” over the trial.
Tarila also said she would be getting married in the weeks ahead,
and expressed sadness over not having the opportunity of her father,
whom she described as a “prisoner of conscience” walking her
down the aisle, and urged the president not to limit his anti-corruption
fight to financial crimes, but other areas calling for attention.
The full letter:
Your Excellency,
President Muhammadu Buhari
President, Commander-in-Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Dear President Buhari,
I hope this letter reaches you in good health. My name is Tarila
Okah, daughter of Mr. Charles Okah, who is currently remanded at Kuje
Prison and standing trial before Hon. Justice Gabriel Kolawole at the
Federal High Court in Abuja over the 2010 Independence Day bomb
incident.
Mr. President, I am writing this letter principally to draw your
attention, the entire people of Nigeria, and members of the
international community to what I perceive as injustice being wilfully
and maliciously meted to my father by the Nigerian state. Within the
last 10 months, disturbing media reports about his attempt to commit
suicide at the Federal High Court in Abuja on October 6, 2015 and his
failing health are sad reminders of the harsh reality of my father’s
frustration with the judicial system in Nigeria, which is notorious for
elastic trials that can drag on for years on end and wear out all
parties. It is rather unfortunate that several court dates in the course
of my father’s trial have been cancelled either because the presiding
Trial Judge had a conference to attend or for other reasons that brings
disrepute to the Nigerian justice system. For instance, the Prosecutor
Dr. Alex Izinyon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria failed to attend one of
the trials on a date that had been agreed upon beforehand, instead
choosing to attend his child’s graduation ceremony abroad.
With all due respect, Mr. President, no democratic Government
anywhere in the world, including Canada where I currently reside, would
treat a prisoner’s attempt at suicide as well as the prisoner’s failing
health, with disdain. Such a peculiar prisoner’s case ought to be
concluded speedily by the Judiciary. Alternatively, such a Prisoner of
Conscience as my father, should be granted bail. However, from all
indications, the Nigerian Government is clearly insensitive to his
plight.
Your Excellency, I have consulted with several Nigerian lawyers who
have sufficiently educated me that, pursuant to Section 162 of the new
Criminal Justice Administration Law in the country, my father is
entitled to bail; having spent more than 3 years in prison custody.
Nevertheless, Hon. Justice Gabriel Kolawole has on two previous
occasions overruled my father’s applications for bail. However, the pace
of the trial has still not been picked up.
Meanwhile, Justice Kolawole in 2011 easily granted bail to Senator
Ali Ndume who was standing trial for terrorism as an alleged sponsor of
Boko Haram.
Today, after being re-elected on the platform of your party, the
All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ndume is the Majority Leader of
Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber, the Senate, while my father (who
is equally as important to society) is still languishing in prison as an
inmate awaiting trial; almost 6 years after he was first arrested on
October 16, 2010 on suspicion of being “JOMO GBOMO,” the spokesman for
the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
Interestingly, Nigerian media perception about my father’s
culpability in the Independence Day bomb incident keeps changing. At
first, he was accused of being the spokesperson of MEND. Later, he was
described as an accomplice to the alleged crime; after the media and the
Nigerian Government realised that ‘Jomo Gbomo’ was still releasing
statements on behalf of MEND, even as my father was firmly held in
custody! Now he is accused of being the mastermind.
Thus far, the prosecution has relied heavily on ‘witnesses’, all of
whom have contradicted their statements under cross examination. In a
recent court sitting, a witness from the Department of State Security
(DSS) who introduced himself as a ‘Crime Scene Investigator’ admitted
that, “no evidence was collected at the crime scene”. While another
witness who supposedly ‘sold’ a Mazda car to the 2nd Defendant, admitted
under cross-examination that, the very first time he set his eyes on
the said Mazda car (Exhibit 2) was “at the premises of the DSS Abuja
Headquarters.”
Without prejudice to his ongoing trial before Hon. Justice Gabriel
Kolawole, I honestly believe that my father is innocent of the crimes
alleged against him. Over the 6 year period of his incarceration and
trial, his businesses which employed many Nigerians have collapsed; his
family is in disarray. Years apart, especially under such circumstances,
often dissolves the emotional bonds between a husband and his wife, and
for my much younger siblings who have now spent more time without their
father, there are virtually no emotional bonds to be dissolved.
On a more personal note, I will be getting married in a few weeks;
albeit without the privilege of having my beloved father walk me down
the aisle – the dream of every daughter. I feel an admixture of joy and
pain as this day approaches knowing that my father is alive but held
somewhere unjustly. Clearly, my siblings and I are being punished
vicariously by the Nigerian state over crimes allegedly committed by our
father which have not been proven beyond reasonable doubt by a court of
competent jurisdiction. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the mere act of
filing even trumped-up charges carries along with it a strong
presumption of guilt, which has led to my father’s conviction in the
court of public opinion and has also led to the abuse of his fundamental
human rights. I know that some Nigerians, on reading this open letter,
will attack me for daring to appeal for my father’s freedom. But my
message to those compatriots is simple: it is high time we focused on
finding the real perpetrators.
Finally, Mr. President, in your determined quest to fight
corruption in Nigeria, I believe that the concept of corruption should
be expanded beyond financial crimes. We must also fight corruption in
the system, and in this case, the judicial system. We have witnessed the
speedy handling of cases involving high profile politicians, but a very
sluggish process for others. The joy of my upcoming marriage plus the
pain of a missing father (who is alive) equates to the simple plea:
#PLEASEFREECHARLESOKAH!
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