President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday stated that the estranged leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) Henry Okah was paid to assassinate him when he masterminded bomb attacks within the premises where Nigeria was celebrating its 50 years independence anniversary.
The President stated this at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos in a PDP rally where he predicated his statement on a headline he read in a national daily which read that MEND dumps Jonathan.
According to him, the leader of MEND was one Okah who is currently imprisoned alongside his wife in South Africa. He said his trial was in South Africa and not in Nigeria where one can say it is manipulated by the President. ”Now the same Okah who is in jail abroad is now endorsing some people through his group,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan then asked; ”Is this the kind of Nigeria you want where a group like MEND will be endorsing party candidates?” To this, the crowd he was addressing yelled: ” No!”
It would be recalled that President Jonathan wasted no time in absolving MEND from any complicity in the the 2010 bombing attack, which occurred in Eagles Square
He had also been reported to have stated in several fora that the main rights group in Nigeria’s Niger Delta had been disbanded.
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