Charles Okah, the convicted Independence Day bomber who has been in solitary confinement at the Maiduguri Maximum Security Custodial Centre (MaSCC) since March 16, 2025, has sustained injuries following an incident at the prison.
Unconfirmed reports from inside the facility suggest that Okah may have succumbed to smoke inhalation after a suspected explosive device triggered a fire in his cell on Sunday, April 20. A correctional officer who spoke anonymously to SaharaReporters claimed the explosion led to a blaze that engulfed Okah’s cell.
However, prison authorities have denied any bomb explosion occurred—either at MaSCC or in any other custodial facility across the country.
Sources earlier told SaharaReporters the fire reportedly resulted from an improvised incendiary explosive device thrown into his cell through the window bars at around 9:00 pm on Sunday.
According to sources, the explosion led to a rapid fire that engulfed the mosquito net and mattress where Okah slept.
Charles Okah, known for his outspoken criticisms and recent open letter to Hon. (Dr.) Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Interior Minister, has reportedly been the subject of harassment and maltreatment by MaSCC authorities.
Since his solitary confinement, he has reportedly been deprived of basic human rights, with authorities reportedly targeting anyone perceived as his ally.
In the wake of Okah’s detention, a series of events has raised concerns about the treatment of inmates at the facility.
Sources said on April 9, 2025, a Reverend, currently an inmate and an ex-soldier, was brutally tortured after being found in possession of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Act of 2019.
It was also learnt that on April 14, 2025, at around 6:00 am, a team from the Armed Squad Unit, led by Superintendent Izge, conducted a search of Okah’s cell. During the search, all of Okah’s Christian books, praying rosary, and dictionary were confiscated.
According to sources, the team also discovered a letter in which Okah had been drafting a complaint to the Borno State Attorney General about alleged corruption within the prison system, according to sources.
Okah’s letter detailed the faking of inmate deaths, a practice allegedly used to circumvent legal processes and allow certain inmates to “resurrect” as free men after being declared dead.
Okah pointed to a specific case: the death of a man convicted in Honourable Justice Aisha Komaliya’s Court, who was said to have died of sudden cardiac arrest on December 22, 2024, only to be “resurrected” on the way to his burial. Okah claimed that the death certificates and medical reports on cause of death were destroyed, erasing all evidence of the fraudulent activity.
This revelation sheds light on the extraordinarily high number of deaths recorded in Borno prisons, a trend that has raised suspicion given the absence of any outbreak of viruses or epidemics.
Sources note that Okah’s knowledge of these activities appears to have made him a target of persecution within the prison.
“The search also yielded a letter Charles Okah was drafting to the Borno State Attorney General about the faking of deaths of inmates in order to circumvent the due legal process and “resurrect” from outside the prison as free men,” a source said.
“The faking of deaths and forgery of death certificates explains the astronomically high number of deaths being recorded in Borno prisons on a monthly basis when indeed there was no outbreak of a virus or epidemic.”
As of now, the fate of Charles Okah remains uncertain, with sources fearing that he may have lost his life in the suspected explosion.
However, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Abubakar Umar, has denied that any bomb explosion occurred at the facility. He also said Okah was alive but “injured after creating panic in the facility”.
He said, “If there was a bomb explosion, you know how it would affect many things around, and not just his cell. There was nothing like a bomb explosion at Maiduguri prison or any of our prisons in the country. So that is not true.
“What I can say is that it is very important to monitor these prisoners very well because there is nothing that they won’t do to try to escape. They can smuggle anything in. But these prisoners also need spiritual upliftment. After he (Okah) returned from church on Sunday, he created panic to create the impression that there was danger or that he was in danger.
“He has a history of creating trouble anywhere he is kept, and that was what happened again. He created panic in the cell, but there was nothing like an explosion. He only had an injury.”
However, when SaharaReporters asked about the nature of Okah’s injuries and how he sustained them, Umar stated that an ongoing investigation would reveal the details.
He added that some inmates opt for self-feeding and that it was unclear what Okah had consumed.
“Investigation will reveal what really happened because an investigation is already ongoing into how he created panic. You know that lighters and matches are also not allowed in cells,” he said.
A prison official alleged that Okah has a history of causing disturbances in a bid to prompt his transfer to another facility.
A correctional officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Every prison Okah has been held in, he has stirred up trouble,” the source said. “Whenever he gets tired of a facility and wants to be transferred, he deliberately causes problems. He has a reputation for being disruptive wherever he goes.”
