posted
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 14:10:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Biafraland] MEMBERS OF MOVEMENT FOR THE ACTUALISATION OF THE SOVEREIGN STATE OF BIAFRA, ( MASSOB ) IN DETENTION.
CENTER FOR ADVANCEMENT OF DEMOCRACY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND HUMAN WELFARE.
Gabriel U. Nwanyanwu, (m). Died in prison custody.
Ahamefula Ugwu, (m). Died in prison custody.
AnayoChukwu Udoka, (m). Died in prison custody.
Usim Aja Ujah, (m). Died in prison custody.
The above named, are members of the MASSOB group, that were arrested at Okigwe by the Nigeria Armed Forces and Police in December, 2000.
They have been tortured and detained, moved from one prison to another, without charges or put on trial since there arrest.
Thereby denying them of their rights as enshrined in the constitution. Due to harsh and poor prison conditions and lack of medical attention, these resulted in the death of four of the detainees.
We hereby appeal to the International Communities to please urge The Nigerian Authorities to either release the remaining two or charge them to court.
Please find enclosed other related news publications and press releases.
Sincerely,
For: Center for Advancement of Democracy, Social Justice, Conflict Resolution and Human Welfare.
Nigerian soldiers and policemen storm Okigwe, harrass and maim indigenes By Chris Ikwunze
On Friday December 1, 2000, scores of heavily armed troops stormed Okigwe town, Imo State (Nigeria) in what observers believe might be a measure by the Federal Government to "flush out" the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazurike and his supporters. The soldiers arrived Okigwe town at about 1.30 p.m. in four military trucks and about 30 mobile policemen came in two trucks and one armoured personnel carrier (APC). The town was immediately surrounded by the troops who fired sporadically into the air, driving residents into the bush. Uwazurike's house located at No.153 Owerri Road, Okigwe was ransacked and his aged father reportedly manhandled. His bus parked at the premises had its four ties shot at by the soldiers.
The popular Penco Hotels, Okigwe (Imo State) was also ransacked by the soldiers apparently thinking that the MASSOB leader was hiding there. The entire workers of the hotel were later arrested and detained when they could not produce Uwazurike. About six cars parked at the hotel premises were shot at by the soldiers who have so far arrested about 20 persons believed to be MASSOB members.
However, Uwazurike himself has evaded arrest as he was said to have left the town shortly before the soldiers arrived. Friday, the town appeared deserted as residents had either run into the bush or to neighbouring, Uturu, Abia State, while business and other commercial activities have been paralysed.
When THISDAY visited Okigwe at about 3p.m Friday, abandoned corpses littered the town while indigenes were running helter skelter. The menacing soldiers were all over town firing into the air and into the tyres of moving vehicles. Although the official reason for the troop action could not be established as at press time, observers believe it might not be unconnected with the clash Tuesday between residents of the town and policemen who had wanted to arrest Uwazurike.
The angry residents had attacked the policemen as well as smashed their vehicles when they rounded up some occupants of Uwazurike's house because they could not locate the MASSOB leader. Reacting to the deployment of troops, President of the congress for the Liberation of Ikwerre Ethnic Nationality, attorney Uche Okwukwu described it as "sheer provocation of MASSOB as there was no war situation. "MASSOB is not an armed struggle, there is no war situation, why deploy troops to kill defenceless civilians", Okwukwu queried.
Iwunze is a reporter for the Lagos-based This Day newspaper/December 3, 2000
The following is a list of MASSOB members murdered or wounded by the Nigerian Police when the Police attacked MASSOB members at the MASSOB secretariat in Okigwe on 4 Dec 2001. To date, a total of 50 MASSOB members have been murdered by the the Nigerian government sponsored death squads. Thousands are in unlawful detention. Many in detention have bullet wounds. Several have bullets lodged in their bodies and are denied treatment by the Nigerian Gestapo. Biafra Activists Murdered by Nigerian Gestapo (Army or Police)
Name Age Sex Employer or Occupation Residence Survived by Date/Place Murdered Murderer
Okechukwu Duru 24 Male Self Okigwe Wife and Children 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe DPO
Kenneth Ugwujiaku 28 Male Self Okigwe Wife and Children 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe DPO
Chukwueze Ogbonna 26 Male Trader Onuimo Wife and Children 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe DPO
Monday Okoro 20 Male Student Onuimo Parents and Siblings 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe DPO
Christian Nwafor 38 Male Technician Umuahia Wife and Children 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe DPO
Biafra Activists Wounded and Detained by Nigerian Gestapo (Army or Police)
Name Age Sex Employer or Occupation Residence Offense Date/Place Wounded Perpetrator
Ifeoma Okeafor 22 Female Applicant Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
* Innocent Orji 30 Male Self Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
* Christian Nwakaibeya 35 Male Self Nnewi Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
* Sunday Iwewe 48 Male Craftsman Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
*Joseph Nwafor 17 Male Student Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
*Ogbonna Nwakwo 38 Male Self Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
Alphonsus Ucheagwa 36 Male Engineer Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
Frankline Nwaogu 30 Male Self Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
Oliver Arine 32 Male Self Awka Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
Emeka Igwe 33 Male Self Nnewi Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
Ifeanyi Oku 29 Male Undergrad Enugu Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
*Peter Ohajurogo 45 Male Home Builder Onitsha Not Charged 4 Dec 2001, Okigwe NPF
* Indicates that the Biafra activist is in detention with bullets lodged in their body and without medical treatment as as of date of publication (20 Dec 2001).
NPF = Nigeria Police Force
DPO = District Police Officer (Okigwe)
The names of some MASSOB members who were shot and wounded by the Nigerian Gestapo have been omitted because compete information was not submitted.
This is the News Analysis Segment of the Voice of Biafra International Broadcasts.
For October 26th 2002
You have heard the news, now, the analysis…
Fellow Biafrans:
Let us devote this week’s news analysis to the scores of innocent Biafrans held in illegal and unlawful detention in various jails in Nigeria just because they are members of MASSOB, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, and other pro-Biafra organizations. The fact that these brothers have been held for this long without charge is by itself a crime against humanity; it is contrary to United Nations laws and Charter to which Nigeria is a signatory. This is even assuming that our brothers have committed any alleged crimes to start with. But we all know, and Nigeria knows it, that our fellow Biafrans whom Nigeria has thrown in jail with great malice have done nothing wrong.
First, MASSOB is a non-violent organization. Members do not carry arms, do not use weapons, and the organization does not support any plans that use violence as a means to achieve Biafra Actualization. It is not enough for Nigerian Security personnel to visit violence on our non-violent MASSOB organizations, shooting some members to death, maiming and wounding others, destroying their property, and terrorizing them in an inhuman campaign of unimaginable cruelty. But, Nigeria in addition has to cart off unarmed, non-violent Biafrans and dump them in jail.
Second, these members of MASSOB so wrongfully and so wickedly thrown in jail are left to rot therein, in conditions not even fit for dogs. They are neglected; those with medical conditions are ignored, and refused medical treatment while their condition gets worse. Those that were originally healthy before they were thrown in jail then develop serious physical and psychological illnesses attributable directly to the jail conditions.
Third, no charges are filed against them all this time, and thereby, our brothers are denied the opportunity of the legal mechanism which would have given them a chance to defend themselves against the charges and prove themselves not guilty of such charges. This deliberate act is calculated, wicked, cruel, sinister, crude, and barbaric. No country that considers itself civilized would ever practice this type of barbarism and terrorism against hapless civilians as Nigeria does.
Who are these Biafrans still languishing in Nigeria’s jails today? They are fathers. They were breadwinners up to the time that their ordeal started. They are our brothers. They come from all walks of life. They are professionals, elites, commoners, artisans, students, traders and unemployed. They have families—small children, and spouses; grown up sons and daughters; they have fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins. They have grandpas and grandmas. They are just like you and me, human beings trying to make a living and trying to make sense out of life, trying to make life livable and worth living for themselves but mostly for everybody else too; trying to make the world a better place for their families—all our families—and especially our children. For this, they were thrown in jail by cruel Nigeria.
Some of these our brothers were thrown in jail for flying the Biafran flag. But the Nigerian Military flies the equivalent of Arewa Nation’s flag at some of their headquarters. How many of the military have been arrested for this?
If the waving of the Biafran flag threatens and frightens Nigeria to the extent that Nigeria is out shooting and killing and imprisoning the Biafran flag wavers—unarmed, non-violent Biafran civilians, then—Nigeria is indeed finished! Nigeria is afraid. Nigeria is in fact sick!
Today, the National Assembly is in disarray, neglecting the business of the governance of Nigeria . Is this not more of a threat to Nigeria? The Senate is in a bitter fight as self-serving, unscrupulous persons like Nzeribe stoke the fires and pursue their own personal agenda. Is this not more of a threat to Nigeria? Should not these players be the ones to be put in jail?
General Obasanjo spent Nigeria ’s funds on the purchase of an executive jet airplane, then proceeded to set a travel record that will be difficult to equal or beat in the entire world, spending one third of his term in office on the road and away from Nigeria . Meanwhile, he declares that he has no interest in tangible things like road-building and road maintenance in Nigeria, much to the detriment of drivers and passengers and pedestrians who are victims of often fatal automobile accidents which can be traced to such bad roads. Pray, tell me, who then is more of a threat to Nigeria: the non-violent MASSOB member or an insensitive and callous non-performing, extravagant President of Nigeria? Who should be in jail, then?
Who is using the resources of the country to buy over members of the National Assembly in order to avoid impeachment? Who is manipulating the laws and the so-called constitution of Nigeria for personal / political gain and egotistic pursuits? Who is spending so much time on self-succession and avoidance of impeachment that he has so little time to do his job as a President of Nigeria? Now, do you see who actually is a threat to Nigeria, how and why? Should Nigeria not throw him in jail?
Everyday, even as we speak, some individuals in high places in Nigeria are busy stealing from the coffers of the country—in broad daylight. These individuals are known to be untouchable—above the law. In fact, other people line up to get their share of the loot from these untouchables. General Obasanjo and his administration are fully aware of this. But he says nothing. He and his administration do nothing about it. In fact, the General owes his election victory in 1999 to this type of largesse. If this is not a threat to Nigeria, what is? MASSOB?
If there is anybody out there who likes what Nigeria has been doing to Biafrans, especially Ndigbo since 1966, let him step forward and tell us why. If there is any Biafran out there who is still in doubt about the fact that Nigeria has a deliberate policy aimed at ignoring, rejecting, humiliating, insulting overlooking and excluding Biafrans from positions of authority, influence and power in Nigeria, let him come out and show us how blind and un-sensing he or she can be. At what point do you say, “Enough is enough”? How much and for how long can you be squished before you can wiggle out from under your tormentor and find your way to safety and freedom? When will you seek justice, and not finding it at the hands of Nigeria, what are you waiting for to apply the justice yourself?
Fellow Biafrans: our people are in jail today because they seek freedom—God-given freedom—which Nigeria has sworn to take away from us by force and by design. Our people in jail today have committed no crimes—instead, Nigeria is the party guilty of crimes because Nigeria threw our innocent people in jail without cause, and without charging them. Our people are in jail because they said, “Enough is enough,” and took a stand.
Fellow Biafrans: we appeal to you to remember these our Biafran heroes who are now in jail. Do not let Nigeria rest until every single one of them has been released. Do not stop talking about them, raising the issue of their case, before the news media, before the courts, before all government officials, at all stages and no matter what government; before Human and Civil Rights Organizations, before the Law institutions. Those lawyers among us, we appeal to you to take on their cases.
Pray for our jailed heroes in your congregations, asking that God release them immediately from the bondage of evil Nigeria. At the same time, do not forget their families—ever! Whatever you can do to console them, to cheer them up, to help them, and to uphold them, please do. Remember them in all your prayers.
To our Biafran brethren wrongfully placed in jail: if you can hear us, do know that we are thinking of you—each and every single one of you; that we shall never abandon you. Know that although we can never feel all that you have experienced—are experiencing—we are in total sympathy and empathy and support; we share your pains and the pains of the families which you have been taken away from. Every single one of you is in our prayers; and God has heard our cry, your cry. and shall break the shackles that the evil Nigeria had bound you with, and shall heal your bruises.
Biafra remembers you and thanks you—you who are in jail for her sake and the sake of her citizens. Biafra lives! Thus, you live!
Nigeria : we ask you to release Biafrans—MASSOB members—whom you have thrown in jail unjustly and without charge. Nigeria , we demand that you immediately let our brothers out of your hellish jails. The judgment of the world and of God shall be visited upon you, Nigeria.
Biafra actualization is the definitive and complete answer for Biafrans to all the injustice and injury suffered by Biafra at the hands of Nigeria.
God bless and keep Biafra and you, until next week. VOBI broadcast continues. (Audio version part of weekly VOBI broadcast posted on Biafraland website, http://www.biafraland.com : follow Voice of Biafra link.)
Irish Democrat > Columns > Anonn Is Anall > Biafra: a tragedy set to be repeated?
Biafra: a tragedy set to be repeated? Peter Berresford Ellis looks at the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy on post-independence Nigeria and warns that the desire for national self-determination remains undiminished among the country’s 15-million Ibo people
BACK IN 1967 I was one of a number of leftists in this country who supported the Biafran republic, trying to tell people the truth behind the propaganda and organise relief for that sad, war-torn country fighting for its independence. When Mrs Oyibo Adinamadu came to Britain, as the official representative of Biafra, in order to meet representatives of the UK’s Labour government, they shamefully refused to meet with her. We lobbied our MPs and demonstrated, but to no avail.
Mrs Adinamadu was not even seeking United Kingdom recognition for her fledgling republic but merely asking them to stop supplying arms to the Nigerian federal government, the military dictatorship led by General Yakubu Gowon, who was engaged in crushing Biafran independence. The Labour government was then the regime’s major arms supplier and political supporter.
We protested at the crocodile tears being shed by the Labour foreign secretary, Michael Stewart (1906-1990), who announced that it had been a difficult decision. But why should we remember Biafra today?
Because, like Ireland, you may crush a nation’s aspirations for a short period but you cannot crush them forever. Since Nigeria’s conquest of Biafra in 1970, the Biafran people have continued to strive for national self-determination. Today, although we don’t see much in the press and media, the Biafrans are still working for independence. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) has continued to organise and agitate, only to be met with ruthless repression by the federal forces.
The Voice of Biafra has been broadcasting once a week since late 2001, the one-hour broadcast providing a critical source of information. A Biafran ‘embassy’ exists in Germany and one is currently being set up in London. Last September Biafran House was opened in the USA to act as a centre for members of the Biafran diaspora there.
Let’s remember the facts of the Biafran war of independence.
Michael Stewart (later Lord Stewart of Fulham) on behalf of Harold Wilson’s Labour government justified his support for crushing Biafran independence because, if he had not done so, “I was encouraging, in Africa, the principal of tribal secession -- with all the misery that could bring to Africa in the future.”
Remember those words “the principal of tribal secession”.
Biafra consisted of a people called the Ibos (aka Igbos). Were they merely a tribe? In fact, they comprised 15 millions; three times the size of the population of a united Ireland. They were a people with a distinctive language, cultural unity and politically united. They were Christian as opposed to the Muslim communities of the other nationalities lumped into the Nigerian federal state.
They had, significantly, played a major role in the colonial struggle that saw Nigeria emerge as an independent state from British rule in 1960. But it was Britain who dictated the boundaries of Nigeria when it became independent. Like most ex-colonies of Africa, its boundaries had been arbitrarily defined to demarcate where the competing claims of the imperial powers collided and not with regard to the people who actually inhabited those states.
Nigeria was composed of the Muslim feudal states in the north, the Hausa and Fulani, and the Yoruba in the south-west. The Ibos, or Biafrans, were in the south-east. Michael Stewart must have known that it was as ridiculous to call the 15 million Ibos a ‘tribe’ as it would have been to call the Danes, Swedish, or Norwegians, with smaller populations, ‘tribes’. But this terminology was part of the insidious propaganda to justify Labour’s support for the genocide in Biafra.
In 1966, a mere six years into the ill-put-together but independent Nigerian state, the Hausa officers of the Nigerian army staged a military coup which brought the 32-year-old, Sandhurst trained, General Yakubu Gowon to power. Within days, 30,000 Ibos were slaughtered by Hausas and a million more were on the move as refugees. While the Biafrans constituted 15 millions, they had to share the state with 85 millions constituting the other nationalities. At this time, the three main ethnic areas (Hausa and Fulani, the Yoruba and Ibo homelands) still had provincial parliaments. On May 27, the eastern Nigeria provincial parliament, representing the Ibos, declared that it would secede, a right given in the then constitution. The provincial parliament stated that the Ibos could not develop or even survive within Nigeria which was now a Hausa military dictatorship. On May 30, in the capital Enugu, the republic of Biafra was declared.
Lt. Colonel Chukuemerka Odumegwu Ojukwu, born 1933, an Ibo who had become military governor of eastern Nigeria just before Gowon’s coup, was declared head of state by parliament. The Biafran State welcome a number of non-Ibo refugees and, indeed, the boundaries of the new state included several other ethnic groups who had decided to join with the Ibos.
From the start, Ojukwu and his government preached a socialist and humanistic approach to politics. I remember how popular Ojukwu’s ‘little green book’, outlining his government’s political philosophy, was in 1968/69.
At first General Gowon’s regime was unsure of what to do, and merely imposed sanctions on Biafra. But Biafra had oil fields. That was probably its undoing so far as the United Kingdom was concerned. It did not want a left-wing Biafra nationalising its oil. Gowon was soon assured of British military support and in July 1967, Nigeria invaded Biafra by air, land and sea. The Biafrans put up an heroic struggle, even making military gains in the early part of the war.
With British support and advice, the Nigerian army made the oil fields their prime target. Apart from oil, Biafra was a net importer of food and had little industry. With the oil fields captured or on fire, Biafra was weak. Enugu was captured in October 1967. The capital was eventually pushed back to Aba, then Umuahia and then Owerri.
Only five nations recognised the republic although socialist movements in many countries tried to give moral and material support.
The Biafrans resisted against enormous odds. Two-and-a half years later they were still fighting and a million civilians had died, not only from the Nigerian federal army rampages but from the famine engendered by the war. Photographs of starving children horrified people around the world but did not shame the UK Labour government who continued to support General Gowon.
Resistance to Nigeria could not be sustained. Ojukwu knew Gowon would not negotiate with him and went into voluntary exile on January 8, 1970 in the Côte d’Ivoire, one of the few states, like Zambia and Tanzania, which had recognised the republic.
On January 10, Major-General Philip Effiong was appointed acting president. On January 12 he made a broadcast on Biafran radio to his people announcing that he was despatching emissaries to the Nigerian field commanders to arrange an armistice. He called on General Gowon “in the name of humanity, to order his troops to pause while an armistice was negotiated in order to avoid the mass suffering caused by the movement of population.” On January 15, Effiong went to Lagos and formallly surrendered the starving and crushed country to Gowon.
“Throughout history, injured people have had to resort to arms in their self-defence where peaceful negotiation fail. We are not an exception,” said Effiong. “We took up arms because of the sense of insecurity generated in our people by the events of 1966. We have fought in defence of that cause. I am convinced now that a stop must be put to the bloodshed which is going on as a result of war. I am also convinced that the suffering of our people must be brought to an immediate end.”
Gowon claimed to the world that there would be “no victor, no vanquished”, but his rhetoric was soon disproved. The Biafrans have suffered 30 years of humiliation. Anyone who fought in the war is either singled out for special treatment or can be seen in wheelchairs along the main roads in Enugu begging for money.
General Gowon, in his turn, was overthrown in another military coup in 1976. Ojukwu was ‘forgiven’ by the Nigerian government and is allowed to live in Enugu. But democracy appears to be returning to Nigeria, with some degree of freedom of speech.
Ojukwu has warned: “None of the problems that led to the Biafran war have been solved yet. They are still there. We have a situation creeping towards the type of conditions that saw the beginning of the war.”
It seems likely the Ibos might vote for independence when the promised democratic elections are held in 2003.
Indeed, it would take a fool to think that the resentment of a nation (the ‘tribe’ of 15 millions, as Michael Stewart would have it) could evaporate after being so ruthlessly crushed. Surely the lesson of Ireland must have some resonance in people’s minds? You cannot exterminate by force any people’s desire for national self-determination.
In spite of the return of so-called democracy the Nigerian federal government has yet to demonstrate any systematic regard for the civil rights of Biafrans. Indeed, it still seems to promote sectarian violence and hate.
Nigeria’s provincial assemblies have begun to adopt Sharia Law, like Zamfara in January, 2000, and Gombe last December. Christian Biafrans fear a creeping Islamisation. Even in the Islamic provinces of Nigeria there have been many protests. Christian Biafra looks on at these developments with fear.
Nigeria is still labouring under high level corruption, its security forces still have complicity in civilian deaths and the government have not convinced the Biafrans that the federal forces are willing to or capable of protecting their civil rights.
The rise of Massob is seen as a response to the terror, cruelty, failure and utter lack of humanity represented by the Nigerian state. Ralph Uwazurike, the Massob leader, has said that his movement would engage in the forthcoming elections but does not place much faith in their being held in 2003. He fears another Hausa military coup to create Nigeria as an Islamic state. The mathematics of religious imbalance do not given the Biafrans confidence for the future -- 15 millions outnumbered by 85 millions.
The current Nigerian president, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was also a field commander whose troops committed atrocities in Biafra during the war. He has already made several threatening remarks about the Biafran independence movement. In December, signing the acts for elections in 2003, he was criticised by the former Senate president, Dr Chuba Okadigbo who accused him of altering the legislation to perpetuate his own power if he did not like the results.
It is time these British imperial constructs like Nigeria were all dismantled and states reflecting a genuine union of national groups or, when union cannot be achieved on the basis of an equal coming together, then a separation of state boundaries, should be made. To call a nation of 15 millions ‘a tribe’ and use the excuse of fighting ‘tribal secession’ to send arms and aid to a military regime crushing the life out of that people was indefensible. The million deaths from famine as well as the causalities of that war should haunt the members of the Wilson Labour government.
Let us fervently hope that we will not have to witness another Biafran war of independence if such a struggle is forced on the Biafran people again, let us hope the UK Labour party will play a more moral role than it played in 1967-70.
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