The Abuja Bomb Blast Suspect To Plead Life Sentence Despite Innocence.
October 1, 2010 Abuja bomb blast that killed 12
people, has been given a nod to appeal his sentence.
He got the go ahead on Monday, his lawyers from
Festus Keyamo Chambers, told PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr. Ebiware was sentenced to life in prison in 2013
after an Abuja court found him guilty of a three-count
charge including having foreknowledge of plans to
carry out the bombing without alerting the
authorities.
Former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta, Henry Okah, was convicted for the
bombing in a South African court in March 2013. Mr.
Okah got a 24 years jail term.
The court said it was convinced Mr. Ebiware was an
accessory to Mr. Okah in carrying out the bombing.
"Anyone who is aware of an act of terrorism but fails
to report same to the President, a Governor, Security
agent or a Peace Officer in order to prevent the
commission of the crime, is liable to a life
imprisonment," Justice Gabriel Kolawole said in his
judgement.
The convict is currently serving his life sentence
under solitary confinement in Kuje Prison. But his
wife, Ify, who is raising their two kids said she's
confident she would upturn the judgement at the
appeal court.
"My husband is totally innocent," she said. "I know
him more than anyone. Even the kids can attest that
he is the best dad in the world."
She argued that committing her husband to life in
prison over accusations that he had prior knowledge
of the bombing was unjust.
"He was sentenced without a single evidence. When
the court asked for evidence, they said it was a
national security matter that could not be tendered
before the court," she said.
Mrs. Ebiwere is confident she would prove at the
appeal that her husband never met Mr. Okah. She
admitted her husband had contacted Mr. Okah once,
but at the instance of Diezani Alison-Madueke,
Nigeria's Petroleum Minister and president of OPEC.
She said Mrs. Madueke had begged her husband to
help establish communication links between Mr.
Okah and herself in furtherance of the Niger Delta
Amnesty program.
"Even Henry (Okah) regarded my husband as a spy,"
she said, quoting a Henry Okah interview with Sahara
Reporters. "My husband never spoke to Henry (Okah)
until the Petroleum Minister contacted him to link
her with Henry Okah."
She said her husband is a political prisoner, arguing
that his troubles began after he accepted to work for
President Goodluck Jonathan's opponent – Ibrahim
Babangida – in the 2011 presidential primary
elections of the People's Democratic Party.
She said Raphael Damfebo, a witness who admitted
he heard Henry was going to carry out a bomb blast
and relayed the information to the convict, had
admitted he was threatened with his freedom into
making the testimony.
"If my husband is serving life jail term because he
heard from the witness, how come the witness who
heard from the source is a freeman today?" she
asked. "The same witness admitted he told Boyloaf
and Timipre Sylva, why are those ones not in jail
too?"
Before his arrest on October 3, 2010, Mr. Ebiware led
the Niger Delta Renaissance Network and published
articles supporting the power zoning arrangement in
PDP which could have stopped President Jonathan
from succeeding late Umaru Yar'Adua.
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