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Empresas y finanzas

Nigerian court to decide oil rebel's bail on August 8


    By Shuaibu Mohammed

    JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian court will decide nextweek whether to grant bail to the suspected leader of the mainmilitant group in the oil-producing Niger Delta, defencelawyers said on Wednesday.

    Henry Okah is believed to be the leader of the Movement forthe Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose campaign ofsabotage against Africa's biggest oil industry has cut outputby a fifth, helping to push up global energy prices.

    Okah, who was arrested in Angola in September andextradited to Nigeria to face trial for gun-running andtreason, still commands loyalty from several well-armedfactions in the delta. He could face the death penalty ifconvicted.

    His trial in camera in the central city of Jos has angeredhis supporters and prompted MEND to scale up its campaign ofattacks on key oil facilities in the world's eighth biggestcrude exporter. His bail application will be decided on August8.

    The director of public prosecutions (DPP), Salihu Aliyu,opposed the bail application, arguing that the charges againstOkah were too serious for trial judge Stephen Adah to agree torelease him.

    "The court does not have the power to grant the DPP'srequest," one defence lawyer said after Wednesday's courtsitting in Jos.

    MEND, the main militant group in the Niger Delta whichproduces nearly all of Nigeria's 2 million barrels per day ofoil output, has made Okah's release a condition for suspendingits campaign of violence launched in early 2006.

    It has said it will not take part in peace talks planned bythe government of President Umaru Yar'Adua until he is freed.

    Okah's trial has made little progress since it started inMay, dragging from one adjournment to the next mainly overtechnical issues.

    His lawyers had said they planned to subpoena formerPresident Olusegun Obasanjo his army chief of staff andrepresentatives of international oil firms including RoyalDutch Shell and Agip to testify.

    Nigerian authorities say the trial must be held in secretfor the sake of national security, an assertion that Okah'slawyers are challenging at an appeals court.

    (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say onthe top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )

    (Writing by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Nick Tattersall)