A frantic search for Mr. Charles Okah, leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) on Thursday, left Kuje Prison officials panicking, after warders on night shift couldn’t find him in his cell by 8pm.
A text message the Comptroller of Prisons, FCT Command, Mr. Sylvester Nwakuche, got from DSS claiming that a man that looks like Mr. Okah was sighted boarding a vehicle at Gwagwalada, led to the search.
SR reports that the text made officers rushed to Mr. Okah’s cell (Number 6), where they were relieved to see a man sleeping and left to report to the Comptroller. However the officers who didn’t ascertain if it was really Charles Okah were sent back to the cell by the Comptroller, and that was when they discovered that sleeping figure they assumed to be Mr. Okah, was a dummy in a sleeping position.
It was gathered that Charles Okah who was found lying under his bed and had propped a dummy on his bed, intentionally caused the panic because of the Prison officials refusal to take him to the National Hospital, Abuja, where he was scheduled to run a battery of medical tests.
A note from Mr.Okah, in which he addressed to the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Prisons Service, was found which led to further panic. Okah later emerged from under the bed to chide them ,for responding promptly to news of an escape but were reluctant to take him to hospital. .
Before the drama, Okah, who is detained for allegedly masterminding the 1 October 2010 bombing in Abuja, had complained that the Kuje Prison authorities were treating complaints about his health with levity. .
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The prison physician, Dr. Osakwe, said he had applied to the authorities in vain to make arrangements for transportation and security to convey him and others to referral hospitals.
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