Edmund Ebiware, convicted for foreknowledge
of the October 1, 2010 Abuja bomb blast that
killed 12 people, has been given a nod to appeal
his sentence.
He got the go ahead on Monday, his lawyers
from Festus Keyamo Chambers, told PREMIUM
TIMES.
Mr. Ebiware was sentenced to life in prison in
2013 after an Abuja court found him guilty of a
three-count charge including having
foreknowledge of plans to carry out the
bombing without alerting the authorities.
Former leader of the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Henry Okah,
was convicted for the bombing in a South
African court in March 2013. Mr. Okah got a 24
years jail term.
The court said it was convinced Mr. Ebiware
was an accessory to Mr. Okah in carrying out
the bombing.
“Anyone who is aware of an act of terrorism
but fails to report same to the President, a
Governor, Security agent or a Peace Officer in
order to prevent the commission of the crime,
is liable to a life imprisonment,” Justice Gabriel
Kolawole said in his judgement.
The convict is currently serving his life sentence
under solitary confinement in Kuje Prison. But
his wife, Ify, who is raising their two kids said
she’s confident she would upturn the
judgement at the appeal court.
“My husband is totally innocent,” she said. “I
know him more than anyone. Even the kids can
attest that he is the best dad in the world.”
She argued that committing her husband to life
in prison over accusations that he had prior
knowledge of the bombing was unjust.
“He was sentenced without a single evidence.
When the court asked for evidence, they said it
was a national security matter that could not be
tendered before the court,” she said.
Mrs. Ebiwere is confident she would prove at
the appeal that her husband never met Mr.
Okah. She admitted her husband had contacted
Mr. Okah once, but at the instance of Diezani
Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister
and president of OPEC.
She said Mrs. Madueke had begged her husband
to help establish communication links between
Mr. Okah and herself in furtherance of the
Niger Delta Amnesty program.
“Even Henry (Okah) regarded my husband as a
spy,” she said, quoting a Henry Okah interview
with Sahara Reporters. “My husband never
spoke to Henry (Okah) until the Petroleum
Minister contacted him to link her with Henry
Okah.”
She said her husband is a political prisoner,
arguing that his troubles began after he
accepted to work for President Goodluck
Jonathan’s opponent – Ibrahim Babangida – in
the 2011 presidential primary elections of the
People’s Democratic Party.
She said Raphael Damfebo, a witness who
admitted he heard Henry was going to carry out
a bomb blast and relayed the information to the
convict, had admitted he was threatened with
his freedom into making the testimony.
“If my husband is serving life jail term because
he heard from the witness, how come the
witness who heard from the source is a
freeman today?” she asked. “The same witness
admitted he told Boyloaf and Timipre Sylva,
why are those ones not in jail too?”
Before his arrest on October 3, 2010, Mr.
Ebiware led the Niger Delta Renaissance
Network and published articles supporting the
power zoning arrangement in PDP which could
have stopped President Jonathan from
succeeding late Umaru Yar’Adua.

www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/177538-abuja-independence-day-bombing-convict-to-appeal-life-sentence.html

Wrong accusation is bad

seen

that guy is innocent is sentence is just political

Ok