The former leader of a Niger Delta militant group, Henry Okah, has reportedly claimed he was arrested and charged in South Africa because he refused to cooperate in a plan to blame northerners for last Friday's Abuja bombings.

The English news website of the Doha-based broadcaster, Al Jazeera, reported on Tuesday that Okah told the channel:

"On Saturday morning, just a day after the attack, a very close associate of President [Goodluck] 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 [the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta], and get them to retract the earlier statement they had issued claiming the attacks."

Okah added: "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."

He told Al Jazeera that he declined to do as he was asked, and was arrested a few hours later. "It was based on their belief that I was going to do that [put pressure on MEND] that Jonathan issued a statement saying that Mend did not carry out the attack."

Okah appeared in court in Johannesburg on Monday, charged with engaging in terrorist activities, conspiracy to engage in terrorist activity, and delivering, placing and detonating an explosive device.