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Nigeria’s security
operatives have expressed doubt about the authenticity of the
celebrated interview with a former leader of the Movement for the
Emancipation of Niger Delta’s (MEND), Henry Okah, by Al Jazeera, during
which he said an aide of President Goodluck Jonathan asked him to
implicate Northern politicians over October 1, 2010 bomb blasts, which
left 12 persons dead.

A security source
said investigations within the security services in Nigeria and South
Africa revealed that the interview with Mr. Okah might have been faked
to deceive the Qatar-based news network.

The source said
last night that their South African counterpart confirmed that, “at no
time did we allow Okah to make such telephone contact. Following
suspicion raised about the authenticity of the interview, we contacted
South Africa to confirm its validity, but were shocked to find out that
at no time did such interview take place,” he said.

“In fact, our
contact wondered why it took us so long to cross check this information
because they did not want to interfere, since the issues did not
concern their government directly. They have been waiting for such
security inquiries from their Nigerian counterpart before revealing the
veracity of the interview, since the content does not concern them
directly.”

Al Jazeera confirmation

An Al Jazzera
reporter, however, told NEXT that the interview was conducted with Mr
Okah. The reporter said Okah called from South Africa and he was passed
on to the company’s studios in Doha.

“He called me from
prison on a +27 number,” the Al Jazeera staff said. “We had a long
discussion about the bombs and the situation in general. Clearly, they
are allowed access to fixed phone lines in SA prisons. I asked him
whether he would be prepared to be go live on Al Jazeera that very
instant. He said ‘yes’.

“So I gave him our
newsdesk number in Doha – and alerted them to the fact that Henry Okah
was about to call from prison. He called, and they put him right
through to the studio and live on air,” the reporter said.

The Joint Task
Force (JTF) for the Niger Delta has also debunked the veracity of
another Al Jazeera programme featuring alleged MEND fighters in the
region. The JTF said an aerial surveillance of the region showed there
were no longer any militant camps anywhere, as claimed by Al Jazeera.

“Al Jazeera, it will be recalled, had also during the late President
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s health saga, staged a similar interview with the
late president’s cousin, claiming that the sick man was healthy,
playing with his children, and climbing 13-storey building,” a security
source said.