■ Lawyer writes FG over alleged maltreatment
FROM FRED ITUA, ABUJA
ONE of the suspects in the 2010 Independence Day bomb blasts in Abuja, Mr. Charles Okah, has embarked on hunger strike to protest alleged harassment by officials of the Kuje Prison, where he is being held.
Beside embarking on hunger strike, Mr. Okah, who has been in the prison custody since 2010, has threatened to file a suit demanding N5 billion damages from the Federal Government.
These are contained in a letter written by his counsel, Timi Okponipere, dated January 21, and addressed to the Minister of Interior, Abdulraman Dambazau. In it, the legal practitioner alleged that the officer in charge of the Kuje Prison, Musa Tanko, has persistently harassed and intimidated his client.
“At the time of writing this letter, our client is as emaciated as a bean pole on account of the hunger strike he has embarked upon, to draw global attention to his plight,” the lawyer wrote.
“Figuratively speaking, our client is virtually a dead man. If our client dies in prison custody, the entire world, particularly the Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta where our client hails from, shall rise in unison against President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, even as we concede the fact that, our client’s ordeal began during the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan, a fellow Ijaw,” he added.