TRANSCRIPT: Regarding his involvement in the bombing of Abuja on Friday October 1st:

It is entirely false and the Nigerian government knows this.

Asked if he is an influential member of MEND:

I won’t say I am an influential member of any groups in the Niger Delta. I am just a sympathizer. I sympathize with any groups using peaceful means or any mean necessary to fight the cause of the Niger Delta. I will tell you something though, on Saturday morning, just a day after the attack, a very close associate of President Jonathan called me and explained to me that there had been a bombing in Nigeria and that President Jonathan wanted me to reach out to the group, MEND, and get them to retract the earlier statement they had issued claiming the attacks.

They wanted to blame the attacks on Northerners who are trying to fight against him [Jonathan] to come back as president and if this was done, I was not going to have any problems with the South African government. I declined to do this and few hours later I was arrested. It was based on their belief that I was going to do that President Jonathan issued a statement claiming that MEND didn’t carry out the attack because they were expecting a kind of retraction from the group.

For months now they have been lying to everybody that everybody is so pleased with Jonathan, that he is going to bring peace to the region, which is entirely false. This attack now was actually going to be a great smear on his aspiration. They just needed the group to retract that statement which was why I was contacted. But I declined to make any such move.”

You don’t just give people an amnesty and ask them to forget about the reason why they are fighting. Every one of us is fighting for something and if what we are fighting for is not addressed, it ushers problem in the area. You understand. It is not about Jonathan being president or about an amnesty being given. I mean, why will you steal my land and you give me an amnesty and then you expect me not to continue fighting you? Why would that happen?

With Yar’adua it was much better. He had a good understanding of the problem. And regardless of the fact that he was from the North, he was making good attempt at addressing these problems. But with Jonathan it is entirely a different story. He doesn’t know what the problems are and is also being teleguided by other people, you know, who are giving him very bad advice. “I don’t care, I really couldn’t care. But one thing I tell you for sure, is just like I was able to talk to you, it only shows that South Africa is not like Nigeria. In Nigeria I was held for one year and four months in solitary confinement. I didn’t kill anybody, I had no books, no newspapers, no TV, no radio, not even electrified.

But the fact that I can speak to you on phone, even though I am being detained, shows that I am in an entirely a different country from Nigeria. And I am arrested here at the instance of Nigeria, which threatened the South African government with diplomatic action if they didn’t arrest me. That is the only reason why I am in detention.

All those people I learnt have been arrested in Nigeria I have no contact with any of them, I don’t even know them. They are just trying to do this thing to point the finger at other political opponents in order to scuttle their attempts at being president.

Al Jazeera