LaRouche Replies to False Gossip
About Nigerian Visitors

On Sept. 15, 1995, Lyndon LaRouche released the following statement:

"In response to some wildly false gossip about the candidate's involvement in a scheduled visit, by distinguished private citizens of Nigeria: These disintiguished citizens of Nigeria were coming to meet with LaRouche and relevant U.S. institutions. The defamatory, false statements against the candidate in his matter are being circulated by duped Americans who are presently working openly with British intelligence's NADECO front-organization."

News Item:

'That's No Mystery! That's British Intelligence!'

BALTIMORE, Sept. 16 (EIRNS)--"There's no mystery to the reason why the delegation of prominent Nigerians did not arrive in Washington, D.C., as scheduled on Sept. 2," said Lawrence Freeman of the Schiller Institute, the institute founded by American statesman Lyndon LaRouche, which was to host the delegation. "The reason lies with British intelligence, whose assets went into a full mobilization to ensure the delegation would be stopped., including veiled death threats delivered to Schiller Institute members in Boston."

Freeman was responding to a wire story of the International Press Service Sept. 11 filed by Rose Umoren from Washington, D.C., that claimed the reasons for the cancelation of the Nigerian delegation's trip were wrapped in "mystery."

The delegation of 10 Nigerian leaders was to have included Chief Odumegwu-Ojukwu, former head of state of the Republic of Biafra, and other members of the Constitutional Conference, who were to brief American policymakers on the Nigeria situation. The government of Sani Abacha, various members of the delegation have told the Schiller Institute, was vital in halting the country's economic and political disintegration.

Among the institutions that went into a full-fledged mobilization to cancel the delegation's briefing trip, Freeman noted, were:

"It's no accident that the headquarters for NADECO is London," said Freeman, "or that its chairman, Bolaji Akinyemi has met twice in the last two months with Lynda Chalker, who has publicly declared war on the Abacha government. Nor is it any accident that Obasanjo--presumably after he had been put into power Chalker and with aid of TransAfrica in March--was to share the podium with Chalker at the Royal Institute of International Affairs' conference on "Britain in the World."

"Either IPS has overlooked the story out of journalistic incompetence, or it is a witting pawn in British intelligence's filthy game to destroy the nation-state of Nigeria."

Intelligence Item:

[Source: IPS, Rose Umoren, Washington, D.C., 9/11/95]:

Sept. 16--IPS NEWS SERVICE SLANDERS LAROUCHE IN WIRE ON NIGERIA DELEGATION. With the headline "NIGERIA: Mystery Wraps Prominent Politicians' Aborted U.S. Visit," the IPS news service put out a wire Sept. 11 by Rose Umoren from Washington which claims that no one knows why a delegation of Nigerian leaders scheduled to visit the United States Sept. 2 hosted by the Schiller Institute, did not arrive. As one of his sources, Umoren cites the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which instigated a NADECO letter to President Clinton and an Aug. 30 rally against the delegation. Other "sources" cited are Amnesty International, the U.S. State Department, the Nigerian embassy, and the New York-based Africa Fund.

"The State Department had no straight answer after three working days. One official eventually told IPS Monday that after sending 'messages all over the place,' he could not confirm whether the men applied for and were denied visas because it is against U.S. consular policy to divulge such information," reported Umoren. "I don't think the problem was from our own end; indications are that it has nothing to do with our policy," he said.

Umoren cites one "Nigerian exile" E. C. Ejiogu, who says that "If the presidential proclamation denying visas to friends of the military could be made in 1993 when the pro-democracy [sic] campaign was feeble, how can it not be enforced now with so much pressure from TransAfrica?"