Oil industry freed from grip of jailed ‘master of arms’

The voice at the end of the crackling mobile phone line was that of a confident, well- educated man speaking in the clipped accent spoken by much of the elite in English-speaking Africa.

But Henry Okah, who this month was transferred to a detention centre in Nigeria from Angola, where he was arrested in September, was in fact the self-proclaimed leader of militants in Nigeria’s turbulent oilproducing Delta region.


Despite having never been seen in public, he has held international oil markets to ransom over the past two years as the frontman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), which in 2006 claimed responsibility for cutting almost a quarter of Nigeria’s oil output.

His capture could mark a slowdown in Mend’s activities and put an end to his career as a top arms supplier to the Delta’s armed groups, which have accelerated their attacks on oil facilities, government forces and even each other in recent years.

Financial Times