LAGOS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A Nigerian rebel group from the oil producing Niger Delta said on Tuesday its leader, Henry Okah, was shot dead in detention in northern Nigeria.

There was no immediate official confirmation.

Okah led a wave of attacks on the oil industry that shut down a fifth of Nigerian output in 2006. He was arrested in Angola on gun-running charges last September but his Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said he was transferred to Nigeria last Thursday. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon)

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