Okah Files New Application to Declare His Imprisonment in South Africa Unlawful

Henry Okah, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, who is currently serving a 24-year prison sentence in South Africa, has filed a fresh application to that country’s Constitutional Court to declare his imprisonment unlawful.

The application, with case number (CCT 58/25) filed at South Africa’s Constitutional Court on Friday, March 17, has as respondents the South African state, the National Director of Public Prosecutions,  the Minister of Police, the Director General  Department of Justice, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Minister of Correctional Services.

Okah, who has served more than 14 years already in prison, is relying on the provision of Section 35 (2)(d) of the South African Constitution that: “everyone who is detained, including every sentenced prisoner, has the right to challenge the lawfulness of the detention before a court in person and, if the detention is unlawful, to be released.”

Okah says there is prima facie proof that his detention and imprisonment are unlawful. While he was arrested and tried because of the provisions of South Africa’s Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act (POCDATARA), the prescriptions of that law were not followed, making the case against him fatally flawed.

Okah submits as follows in his new application: 

“I was arrested for alleged contraventions of POCDATARA - which Act at section 15 (6) prescribed that I be arrested in terms of section 40 (1) of the CPA. It is common cause that my arrest on 2 October 2010 was effected on the basis of a warrant obtained by the Second Respondent in terms of section 43 of the CPA.

Henry Okah

12.3.2 I respectfully submit that my arrest in terms of section 43 of the CPA was statutorily impermissible and thereby necessarily unlawful; and further that the unlawfulness of my arrest presents prima facie proof of the unlawfulness of my ongoing detention, warranting the determination thereof by this honourable Court.”

The jailed militant leader said he had approached the court several times in the past in a bid to challenge the lawfulness of his imprisonment. “I at no time have appeared in person before the court, nor has the merits of my application ever been decided,” Okah says the the filing.

“By this application, I seek an order of this honourable Court declaring the judgment and order of the Constitutional Court in S V Okah [2018] ZACC 3 on which basis I am detained, to be a nullity,” Okah says.

On February 12, a three-member panel of the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) of South Africa’s Constitutional Court voided a previous dismissal of a complaint by Okah alleging that documents he filed as part of his appeal process were tampered with at the prompting of former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. The JCC also ordered an investigation of the allegations.

Another ruling the Constitutional Court on February 18, dismissed  Okah’s request for a rescission of the ruling obtained through the alleged tampering but instead, granted him a “condonation” that opened the way for him to make today’s filing.

Okah has rejected repeated offers of parole by South Africa’s Correctional Services Department because such offers fail to recognize the unlawfulness of his imprisonment. He has filed this latest application before the Constitutional Court in the knowledge that officials in the Correctional Services and Justice Departments are working on a plan to impose parole on him and illegally deport him to Nigeria to avoid having to contend with his illegal imprisonment.

This statement was released by Henry Okah’s legal team. 

Source: TNG Presswire

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