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Mr. Okah’s South
African lawyer, Piet Dupleiss, in a telephone conversation with NEXT,
said that his client could receive calls whilst in custody, but that he
could not make calls from within the cell.

“Mr. Okah does not
have access to his personal phone,” he said. “However, with permission
he can receive calls on the official prison phone.”

During a call to
Mrs Okah in South Africa on Friday, she asked to get clearance from her
husband and call back. She did, and fielded questions.

Later, a man claiming to be Mr Okah called and spoke with us. Excerpts:

Phone-calls from detention

This is a civilised
country where phone calls are not a special privilege. I can make calls
anytime I want to. I am aware of efforts by the federal government to
debunk my phone conversation with Al-Jazeera as a hoax, trying to make
it seem like the call to Al-Jazeera was not real. To dispel this, I am
going to talk to the BBC and CNN.

Claim that the federal officials asked him to implicate the north

Yes, let me confirm
to you that government officials, who I will not name now, called me
and made the appeal. I also have a text message which reads:

“Please, reach out to MEND and ask them to retract the statement and the government will blame the Northern elements.”

Status of the text after his phone was seized by prosecutors

I have saved the
message on another phone. Shortly after I got the text message, Dopkesi
(IBB’s campaign manager) was arrested. I will not release the message
now because if I do, the next thing they will say is that someone/IBB
has paid him to do this. As they continue to sour my name the more, I
will release the message. I am also in no hurry to release this message
yet, because we are fighting the system, not Jonathan. So I don’t want
it to be seen as if I am giving an undue advantage to anybody. I will
release everything I have and leave the public to judge.

The officials that sent the text

I cannot tell that
now. I understand the sensitivity of the whole drama and I will
definitely play my cards right when the time comes I will reveal them.

Being described as
a terrorist I am a sympathiser and not a terrorist. Let me tell you now
that those thugs assembled in Abuja have no control in creeks. Only
Boyloaf and Farah Jack are the real MEND members amongst those paraded
on Tuesday. Let them know that there are still weapons and people in
the creeks still willing to fight. For every 1,000 weapons in the
creeks, there are 1001 people willing to fight.

His charge by the South African government

They searched my
house and found nothing. Yet government said I sent warning emails and
everybody knows that emails can easily be tracked.