Nigerian anti-Shell activist Henry Okah allowed first prison visit

international | environment | news report Monday March 10, 2008 01:58 by netrebko

Opponent of the oil companies faces death penalty if convicted

How is the author of the best selling book about the death of the crew of a fishing boat connected to the high prices for petrol being paid by Irish motorists?

It's said that Sebastian Junger, author of the bestseller The Perfect Storm, had his life saved by a Henry Okah, who is currently in jail somewhere in Nigeria, facing trial on a charge of treason. The deteriorating security situation in Nigeria, of which Okah's incarceration is a part, is contributing the rising world price of oil.

Henry Okah

Last September Henry Okah, a leader of MEND (the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), was arrested and detained by authorities in Angola who charged him with various offences including gun running and sponsoring a coup attempt. Observers have speculated that the Angolans were acting at the behest of multi-national oil companies.

Although the Angolan charges were dropped last month, Okah was then extradited to Nigeria.

He is currently charged with treason against the Nigerian State. If convicted, he will be executed.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International have called for him to be given access to a lawyer. MEND has called for his release and threatened severe reprisals if he is harmed.

This weekend, it has been reported that his brother and lawyer were allowed access to him for the first time, and that they say he appears not to have been ill-treated. The meeting took place in a central location to which Okah was transported under guard, and his lawyer says he does not know where he is being held.

Increased attacks by MEND in the oil-producing south of Nigeria since 2005 have reduced the country's normal crude oil output by one-fifth. This is said be one of the factors leading to unprecedented rises in the international trading price of oil. Markets have seen the price hit more than 104 US dollars per barrel in recent days.

RTE television news interviewed motorists in Dublin this week and found that many are suffering from having to pay the increased price of petrol. Long commutes, caused by rising house prices and poor public transport infrastructure, mean that many workers in Ireland have no choice but to spend a lot of their income on running cars.

MEND has demanded that Shell pay the over a billion US dollars in compensation to the people of the Niger Delta for environmental damage to the region, and for the Nigerian government to increase the amount of oil revenue money awarded to developing oil-producing communities.

(Contrasting with the situation in Ireland, where no oil revenue is paid to communities or the state, and reports of environmental damage are simply ignored.)

It is unlikely that Shell or the Nigerian government are going to agree to these demands in the near future, and the detention of Okah is part of their campaign to undermine the rebel group. World oil prices are set to remain high while the conflict continues.

While writing a long article for American magazine Vanity Fair which was published last year, journalist Sebastian Junger (author of the Perfect Storm) spent some time with MEND guerrillas. He reported that the fighters were well armed and equipped, and can match the Nigerian army in terms of fire power.

Junger was briefly held by a group of militants who threatened to kill him, but it is said that Henry Okah, who was then based in South Africa, called their leader on his mobile phone
and saved the journalist's life.

Former US ambassador to Nigeria Walter Carrington was pessimistic about the situation in the country unless the government and the oil companies can reach a compromise with the people of the delta. Speaking in 2006, he said:

"What I am hoping is that there will be more attention paid to the demands of the people in the Niger delta region, otherwise I'm afraid that what we are going to see is problems that we're seeing elsewhere, that we see in places like Chechnya and Colombia".

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You can read Sebastian Junger's article from Vanity Fair here: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/02/jun...00702