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Nigeria rebel leader accepts gov't amnesty: lawyer

Thu Jul 9, 2009 2:48pm GMT
 

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian militant leader Henry Okah, who is on trial for gun-running and treason, has accepted a government offer for "unconditional" amnesty, his lawyer told Reuters on Thursday.

President Umaru Yar'Adua last week ordered his interior minister to extend the amnesty offer to Okah and promised to release him if he accepted.

"They offered it to him yesterday. Okah welcomed the amnesty," one of Okah's lawyers, Wilson Ajuwa, said by telephone. "We are in the process of finalising it. Hopefully, it will be resolved early next week."

He declined to say when he expected Okah to be freed.

The release of Okah has been one of the key demands from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the country's most prominent militant group that has launched an intensified campaign of violence against the oil sector in the last six weeks.

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