Breaking: Oct 1 bombing: Court sentences Charles Okah, Nwabueze to life imprisonment

The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, on Wednesday, convicted and sentenced Mr. Charles Okah, the alleged mastermind of the 2010 Independence Day bomb blast that left twelve persons dead at the Eagle Square in Abuja, to life imprisonment.

The court, in a judgment that lasted over fives hours, equally found Okah’s alleged accomplice, Mr. Obi Nwabueze,guilty and also handed him a life sentence.

Trial Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that oral and documentaryevidence the Federal Government tendered before the court, connected the defendants to the October 1, 2010, bomb blast.

He held that the prosecution proved the terrorism charge against the defendants beyondevery reasonable doubt.The court said their was evidence that convicted formerleader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah, released funds the defendants used to purchase cars that were used to detonate bombs in Delta State on March 15 and in Abuja on October 1, 2010.

While the court noted that two out of six cars that Henry ordered to be purchased, a Mazda 626 and a Honda Hala, were wired with dynamites anddeployed to the Eagle Square in Abuja, it stressed that evidence revealed that one of the cars was used for the bomb explosion that rocked a post amnesty programme that was organised by Vanguard Newspaper in Warri, Delta State.

It found Charles who is younger brother to the ex-MEND leader and Nwabueze, guilty on five out of the eight count charges FG entered against them.Justice Kolawole maintained that the defendants failed to convince the court through credible evidence, that they were not involved in the acts ofterrorism they were charged with.

He said the defendants could not validly explain what the sums of N1.2million and N2million that Henry released to them in 2010, was used for.It will be recalled that one of the alleged planners of the bomb attack that marred Nigeria’s fiftieth anniversary, Mr. Osvwo Tekemfa Francis, a.k.a ‘General-Gbokos’, died in prison custody, while the court,in a separate trial, jailed the 3rdaccused person, Edmund Ebiware, to life imprisonment in2013.

All the defendants were initiallyarraigned before the High Courton December 7, 2010 and subsequently re-arraigned on January 12, 2011, on charges predicated on section 15 (1) and (2) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Act, attracts life imprisonment upon conviction.