Secretariat

c/o A. O. Wilson,

No. 8 Bonny Street,

Port Harcourt.

His Excellency,

The High Commissioner for Sierra Leone in Nigeria,

Sierra Leone High Commission,

LAGOS

Your Excellency,

We the undersigned are Sierra Leoneans who are domiciled in what was formerly the Eastern Region of Nigeria in search of our livelihood. Some of us have spent upwards of thirty years in this country and what we say should be taken with the seriousness that it deserves.

First of all we have to say that whatever Mr. Samuel Metzger has stated in Sierra Leone that has made the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone to make the statement attributed to him cannot be regarded as the truth, because nothing which tends to make anyone support the Nigerian rebels cannot be the truth.

Take for instance the question of genocide. No one intends to exterminate the Ibos. Rather, the Ibos in their mad bid for power intended to exterminate any group that opposed them. The coup of January 1966 is a case in point. When in late 1964 and early 1965, they found out that they could not seize power in Nigeria they started planning the Coup. This culminated in the killing of the Sardauna of Sokoto (Sir Ahmadu Bello), the Prime Minister, (Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa), Chief Festus Okotie Eboh and Northern and Yoruba high ranking Army personnel. It is significant that no Ibo leader whether military or political was killed.

Major General Aguiyi Ironsi took over the reins of Government and for a time the Ibos were satisfied. Meanwhile in the North, Ibos resident there started to taunt and jeer at the Northerners. You do not know the Iboman as we who lived amongst them do. They can be exasperating. They can goad you into doing something mad.

The Northerners are no angels it is true, but in this case the events of May and September, 1966 were as a result of extreme provocation. You or your leaders killed or cause to be killed my own leaders. Then you now turn round to show me the photograph of one of those killed, especially one whom you know I hold in high esteem, and make such provocative statement as, “Is this not that your God, where is He now“?, and with that you throw the photograph on the ground and stamp upon it. Who will sit by and take such taunts coolly?