News Release: MEND Claims Responsibility For Yesterday Attack On Police Gunboats

Similar to the April 06, 2013 attack carried out on fifteen (15) police officers on the day ‘Hurricane Exodus’ was launched, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) takes responsibility for the Saturday, February 08, 2014 attack on two (2) police gunboats escorting a traitor, Mr Eris Paul aka Ogunboss at Peremabiri, Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa State.

Ogunboss and several others now hiding in the cities, sold their birthrights for contracts and political appointments to the detriment of a just cause. They are now persona non grata in the creeks, and their lives and ill-gotten properties have become subject to legitimate targets for destruction. In the words of our hero, the great Madiba, Nelson Mandela, “No self-respecting freedom fighter would take orders from a government he is fighting against or jettison a long time ally in the interest of pleasing an antagonist”.

It is not yet uhuru for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who has announced the completion of repairs on the Escravos-Lagos gas pipeline attacked by Hurricane Exodus. Nigerians should not expect improvement in power availability through gas pipelines until the root issues that led to militancy in the Niger Delta have been addressed or discussed.

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has learnt from a reliable source inside the National Hospital , Abuja that the last paragraph concluding the psychiatric evaluation report dated January 09, 2014 was doctored.

This paragraph concluded that Mr Charles Okah was happy with the judge and was fit for his trial; contradicting the body of the report which listed several serious mental conditions including memory loss, psychotic depression, auditory and visual hallucinations. It even mentioned the Charles Okah could not recall the number of children he has and imagined he was in the Judges chamber instead of a physician’s consulting room!

A wide range of symptoms he exhibited according to the report are related to the side effect of the drug epilim sodium valproate which was prescribed by the National Hospital and forcefully administered to him by the Nigerian Prisons even after he had complained of the adverse effect it was having on him.

Our source revealed that a devious and desperate government Prosecutor, Dr Alex Iziyon (SAN), the SSS, National Hospital Medical Director and Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, fraudulently inserted the paragraph into the space that was deliberately created between the original last paragraph and the signature, and inserted the doctored paragraph after the document was signed by an unsuspecting consultant psychiatrist who could not be persuaded to make such an unethical and unprofessional compromise.

The cat was let out of the bag after Charles Okah’s lawyer pointed out the contradiction between the body of the report and the conclusion to an already suspicious Judge, who then ordered for another psychiatric evaluation to be conducted and signed by three (3) psychiatrists before the next adjourned date of February 05, 2014.

The consultant psychiatrist on discovering the unethical conduct by her superiors bluntly refused to carry out a further evaluation which is the real reason why no new report was available in court on February 05, 2014. To avoid exposing this national disgrace, the matter was discussed inside the Judge’s chamber while the official line was to lie that the re-evaluation was not carried out because the National Hospital had just one psychiatrist and needed two more to sign. They also sighted “National Security”. Since when did a medical evaluation report become a “national security” matter to be discussed in private?

It is very unfortunate that the National Hospital has joined the list of government agencies of persecution by allowing doctors to be used to destroy perceived enemies of the State by administering poison and falsifying documents.  

Jomo Gbomo