Administrative Headquarters

C/o Rescue Chambers

# 7, Igboukwu Street

(2^nd Floor) D/Line

Port Harcourt.

Tel: 084-572934

E-mail: massobreso@yahoo.com

 LIBERATION MOVEMENTS, TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS, SUBSTANCE CARTELS   AND OTHER PARA-STATE ENTITIES

 Attention: Federation of American Scientists (FAS),

We read with utter disbelief the listing of the following self-determination groups as terrorist organizations, namely;

1.                  Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC). Of the Oduduwa Republic.

2.                  Oodua Liberation Movement (OLM). Of Oduduwa Republic.

3.                  National Association of Yoruba Descendants. Of the Oduduwa Republic.

4.                  Egbe Isokan Yoruba. Of the Oduduwa Republic.

5.                  Supreme Egbesu Assembly (SEA). Of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality.

6.                  Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC). Of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality.

7.                  Ijaw National Congress (INC). Of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality.

8.                  African National Congress (ANC). Of South Africa.

9.                  Mau Mau. Of Kenya Independence struggle. .

10.              SPLA. Of the Sudanese struggle against Islamic domination. 

Alongside such renowned terrorist groups as the; (a) Al Qaeda (b) Hamas (c) National Liberation Army of Iran (d) New Jihad Group (e) Taliban (f) Ku Klux Klan, etc. with Osama Bin Laden also in the list, we declare this development as unfortunate. We believe that an organization such as yours should have taken the pains to investigate and analyse these groups in order to discover their aims, focus and objectives before joining them with such terrorist groups, these groups of terror to mankind are not fighting for the benefit of mankind, while these self-determination groups are in a struggle to liberate their people from complete annihilation, domination and extermination from the face of the Earth.

We of the MASSOB, having been in long-term relationship with these self-determination groups, know their modus operandi too well, therefore we are shocked to find out that they are being labeled as terrorist organizations. The Nigerian State had always committed crimes with the aim of labeling groups as terrorist. Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) was once called a terrorist movement because of their cry against the destruction of their environment. The Ijaw groups are only asking that the Nigerian State and the Oil Companies should allow them (Ijaw) to control their resources 100%, and given this fact, the Ijaws are hunted and targeted, thereby branding them terrorists. 

The Yorubas are saying that they are no longer comfortable with Nigerian polity and the adulteration of their culture and tradition, therefore a need for them to leave according to their culture and tradition, and they are labeled terrorist groups.

Please, we of the MASSOB, would love the FAS to visit Nigeria and see the injustices meted out to the people. “The worst sin against humanity is the destruction of his environment”, and this is exactly what the Government of Nigeria have been doing to the people who generate the sustenance of the country called Nigeria; from the era of Palm produce to the current foreign earner, which is crude oil, which everybody knows comes from the land of the Southerners, the North have pronounced the governance of the country, their “birth-right”; which they express whenever anybody from a different tribe tries to contest for the leadership of Nigeria, and the said claim was demonstrated in the elimination of Gen. Johnson Thomas Aguyi-Ironsi in 1966, Isaac Adaka Boro in 1969, Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995, Chief. M.K.O. Abiola in 1998.

We should read the signals of oppression now and not brand groups asking that a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) be convened as terrorist groups, if these groups are terrorist groups then one has the right to also brand the Federal Government of Nigeria as a terrorist Government, because the Government have being killing defenceless people through its security outfits. Mobile Policemen razed down Choba town in Rivers State, a University town, in 1999, amidst the killing, maiming and raping of the women of the town including Students of the University of Port Harcourt Choba, and up till this time the government haven’t probed into the incident, in the same 1999, the quiet rural and peasant town of Odi, in Bayelsa State with a population of about 20,000 people was razed down to nothingness by the Army, people were killed, maimed, women raped including the raping to death of a 70 Year old woman amidst the destruction of properties and the government didn’t see any reason why the incident should be termed as being unjust . Is it the killing and invasion of the Tiv people in Benue State also by the Army in 2002 in which 10,000 lives were waste?. On September 17,2002, the Nigeria maximum ruler, General. Olusegun Obasanjo, on the CNN question and answer session, referred to the genocidal murder of the 10,000 Tivs as only and further stated that it meant nothing, since the population of Nigeria is over 100 million. Since May 2000 over 4,000 members of MASSOB have either being killed or in detention without trial in Court or granted bail, they are held in solitary confinement on the orders of the Inspector General of Police of the Federation of Nigeria said to be acting by Orders from “ABOVE.

What will you (FAS) tag these injustices by the very government which is supposed to be the custodian of the people’s Right and Justice. We should fight injustices today because tomorrow may be our turn as Pastor. Martin Niemoller said of his experience in the Nazi Germany era, he said and I quote; “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out, because I was not Jewish, Then they came for the Communist and I did not speak out, because I was not a Communist, Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out, because I was not a Trade Unionist, Then they came for me and there was no-one left to speak out for me”. Pastor Neimoller wrote this lines after he was confined into one of the Nazi concentration camps during the 2^nd World war.

We of MASSOB urge the Federal Government of Nigeria under the supervision of the United Nations (UN), to convene a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) now in order to stall the emergence of the so-called “Terrorist groups”. The way the country Nigeria is going now, it is very clear that there is no way we can achieve peace and stability in Nigeria without asking all the stake-holders in Nigeria (Different Ethnic Nationalities) to sit down and discuss the future of the country along Ethno-regional lines, and the said discussion will be in the cause of re-structuring of the country called Nigeria, which must include the Right to secede, for better governance and hope for the people in the different ethnic nationalities. We call on the Federation of American Scientist  (FAS) to visit the country and see things for themselves and not labeling self-determination groups’ as terrorist organizations. You (FAS), should not rely on the report of government apologists in judging a people whom you cannot feel their pulse. There are no terrorist groups in the false Federation called Nigeria and there shall not be any in the future governance along ethnic lines, we challenge the Government and the ruling cabal of Nigeria to convene a Sovereign National Conference  (SNC) today, if they do not have “skeletons in the cardboards”, for that is the only way forward for the oppressed people of the present composition of Nigeria.

A Stitch in Time, they say saves Nine. 

Thanks for your anticipation.

NwaMazi  Obinna E. Okoro,
MASSOB, Administrative Officer.