Prison officials stripped me naked for using phone, granting interview — Okah

DETAINED leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Charles Okah, on Monday, told Justice Gabriel Kolawole that officials of Kuje Prisons in Abuja meted out corporal punishment on him for allegedly leaking information to a radio house.

Okah’s counsel, Samuel Zibiri, who informed the court of the development, said Okah was allegedly “stripped naked and chained” by prison operatives for allegedly using phone in the cell and granting an interview to a radio house from prison.

Okah told the court that he was allegedly stripped naked and his phone confiscated.

The trial Judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, wondered what power prison officials has to mete out corporal punishment to prison’s inmates.

According to Justice Kolawole, “No official has the right to strip a prisoner naked or mete out corporal punishment to any prisoner. If this is repeated, the officials involved will be summoned to the court.

“If Okah used phone or talk to a radio house, it is in collusion with prison officials,” the judge said.

The prosecution counsel, Dr Alex Iziyon (SAN), said he was not aware of Okah’s ordeal, saying nobody told him anything.

However, he apologised, that it was against prison rule to strip inmates naked.

Izinyon said what he was told was that the prison’s authorities wanted to bring charges against Okah for using phone while in detention but he played it down.

Meanwhile, in continuation of trial of Okah, the prosecution had called 17 witnesses so far in the trial.

An operative of the Department of State Services (DSS), Humphrey Idowu Ohikware, during a cross examination by the defence counsel, said he was instructed to retrieve the waybill that accompanied a bag from from Lagos to Port Harcourt through ABC Motor Transport Company.

But Izibiri had asked the witness to take note of a portion of his written statement that said the consignment he was asked to retrieve was from Abuja to Lagos.

The case was adjourned till today for the prosecution to present its last witness.

Okah is currently being tried alongside Obi Nwabueze for allegedly masterminding the 2010 Independence Day bombing at the Eagle Square in Abuja.