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Letter of Appreciation from the Ogoni 20 (In the Old Testament, Esther's beauty and powers of advocacy win over the tyrant King Assuerus and secure freedom for the Jews). [Esther's petition to King Assuerus] "If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please thee, give me my life for which I ask, and my people for which I request." "For we are given up, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And would God we were sold for bondmen and bondwomen: the evil might be borne with, and I would have mourned in silence. But for now we have an enemy, whose cruelty reroundeth upon the King." "And king Assuerus answered and said: Who is this, and of what power, that he should do these things?" From `The Book of Esther' chapter 6; verse 4. The following is a letter from the Ogoni 20, which they wrote immediately after they were released from Port Harcourt Prison on September 7th. Just to emphasise the 20's sentiments in the letter, so many people campaigned tirelessly to win their freedom we can't hope to thank everyone personally. We have received a phenomenal number of e-mails and letters wishing the 20 well. Sorry if you haven't had a reply. We do read everything you send us and we are relaying all your good wishes to the 20. We have just confirmed that all the Ogoni detainees held in connection with the January 4th 1998 Ogoni Day celebrations have been released. Currently there are no political detainees held in Ogoni (though 100's of political prisoners remain in appalling conditions in prisons throughout Nigeria). On September 12th military roadblocks were removed from Ogoni. Rivers State Internal Security Task Force troops who manned these check points have returned to three military camps maintained by RVSISTF in Ogoni at Kpor (their headquarters), Bori and Eleme. Contrary to reports in the media, Ogoni is still under military occupation. If you wrote a letter to your democratic representative, Shell or to the Nigerian military authorities about the 20, joined in with a Shell garage boycott, told your friends and family about the 20, about Ogoni and told them why they should boycott Shell... .... or showed your support for the Ogoni people in so many ways then you freed the Ogoni 20 and all the Ogoni political detainees. MOSOP's international campaign for Ogoni survival and Ogoni freedom is producing real results. With your continued support we can free Ogoni. Thank you. Tim Concannon, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: 8th September 1998. Thro:- The Acting President, Dear Sir, OUR LETTER OF APPRECATION. We, the undersigned are the remaining 20 youths just released from a protracted detention by the Government through the court unconditionally hereby write to express our profound appreciation and gratitude to God Almighty whose amazing Grace and tender mercies on us has sustained us till today and also who granted MEN and WOMEN of goodwill, the world over, the resources, enablement and the courage to fight untiringly for our freedom and that of other oppressed humanity. This God works through the instrumentality of some people and to these people do we fervently thank for the humanity in them. We thank the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) the author and artificer of the Ogoni consciousness. We pray that God should see them through until OGONILAND is totally emancipated. Our thanks also go to all the MOSOP affiliated bodies for their steadfastness in the struggle in spite of all of the odds. We very much thank Chief Gani Fawehimi and his team of lawyers for their ever readiness to always come to our rescue at the least call even without our paying them. He is a unique phenomenon and a real human being. Our thanks also go to Mrs. Yime Joi Nunieh Yowika and her team of lawyers for her timely and God sent mission. She finally lifted off the lid to our freedom in spite of all threats by our detractors. She is the `ESTHER' of the Ogoni people. We thank all the local and international media for giving us the voice to reach out to the whole world. You are the last vestige of conscience, light and truth and the vessels for the preservation of human rights and the respect for the human person. We thank you for your tireless cooperation and assistance through out our period of travail and we are still asking for some gestures till Ogoniland and the oppressed Niger Delta is emancipated. You are the voice of the voiceless. Special thanks also go to all the local and international Human and Environmental Rights groups, such groups as:- the CLO [Civil Liberties Organisation, Nigeria], ND-HERO [Niger Delta Human and Environmental Rescue Organisation, Nigeria], JACON [Joint Action Committee of Nigeria], NADECO [National Democratic Coalition, Nigeria], CDHR [Committee for Defence of Human Rights, Nigeria], DA {Democratic Alternative, Nigeria], WAND [Watch the Niger Delta, Nigeria], ERA [Environmental Rights Action, Nigeria], Sierra Club [USA], The Earth First! Network, Delta (UK), Friends of the Earth, Oilwatch, Project Underground, Right Livlihood Foundation, Article 19 [UK], Essential Action (USA), Africa Fund (USA), American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, World Development Movement {UK], Society for Threatened Peoples (Germany & Austria), Earth Love Fund, ECO (New Zealand), Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch/ Africa, Nigerian Advocacy for Democracy and Human Rights, and many others too numerous to mention. May God bless you all. Our unreserved appreciation and gratitude also go to all the MEN and WOMEN of goodwill, the world over, who have the milk of humanity flowing in them. For real men are those who find that the courage to tread the path of truth where lies and deceit upturn:- such persons as Anita and Gordon Roddick and the staff and customers of the Bodyshop internationally, Michael Birnbaum of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, Glenys Kinnock of the European Parliament, Peter MacDonald, President Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair of the US and Britain respectively and their cabinets, Sister Majella etc. Also organisations such as TROCAIRE - a religious charitable group based in the Republic of Ireland, the World Council of Churches - the curator of Christendom - the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) - a mini United Nations etc. All are the salt of the world and with people and groups like you the world will be a better and safer place for all mankind. We also thank all the pressure groups and all those whose contribution and efforts persuaded the Government of Nigeria to effect our release. Special thanks also go to various prayer and pressure groups and churches in Ogoniland and beyond whose knees never ceased to bend and lips never ceased to talk to God on our behalf. It is our prayer that God should reward all you abundantly from His Riches in Glory. While we are happy that we are released this day, we wish to say that our release cannot amount to freedom when OGONILAND and the entire NIGER DELTA is still under an army of occupation - a genocide squad christened the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force (RVSISTF). We hereby call for the total disbandment of this contraption. It is the perpetrator of the violation of all our rights and the degradation of our environment. We also call on the Government of Nigeria to please address all the demands of the people of OGONILAND as enumerated in the historic document - THE OGONI BILL OF RIGHTS, for only this can signal to us the hope and sense of belonging in the ongoing programme of reconciliation and reintegration of the Abubakar-led administration. We also call on the Government to implement the recommendations of the UN fact-finding team to Ogoniland in 1996. We wish to reiterate that even as we are released, we have been rendered almost incapacitated and dehabilitated by the jeremiad of sickness due to the hostile and deplorable conditions in our torture chambers/ cells at the prison. The amount of torture and inhumanity we received in the hands of the Nigerian soldiers who were hired by Shell has placed our health on the precipice. For instance Messrs. Kagbara Basseeh and Blessing Israel were arrested by Shell Police at Oron-Benson beach in Akiwa Ibom State in south-eastern Nigeria. The tortures received at the hands of these brutes is better imagined than experienced. And so we are appealing to all and sundry to please help us so that we can be able to afford some medicine attention for ourselves, if not our release will be a release from prison to the grave. We thank all of you for your marvellous concerns and assistance asking that God should continue to grant us the courage to fight against injustices and oppression for all mankind. We are: 1. Nyieda Nleidi Nasikpo (c) Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), 1998. Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), International secretariat: Suite
5, 3 - 4 Albion Place, Galena Road, London W6 0LT, United Kingdom. "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues" -- Ken Saro-Wiwa, the gallows, November 10th 1995. 'Ogoni is a land of half a million people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Since 1958, oil companies such as Shell have exploited Ogoni's oil wealth, while the Ogoni people have suffered economic deprivation, the environmental devastation of our land and the discriminatory policies of successive Nigerian governments'. 'The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People demands economic justice, human rights - including the right to choose the use of our land and its resources - and to a future free of violence. MOSOP is the democratic voice of the Ogoni people'. Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Nigeria, 27 Odu Street,
Ogbunabali, Port Harcourt, Nigeria: MOSOP International secretariat: e-mail: mosop@gn.apc.org Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
