Obasanjo orders expulsion of Charles Taylor

ABUJA – Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday ordered that exiled former Liberian leader Charles Taylor be immediately sent back to his homeland, hours after the war crimes suspect was recaptured while trying to flee.

Information Minister Frank Nweke told reporters Obasanjo had “ordered the immediate repatriation of Charles Taylor to Liberia, which has requested custody”. The minister was speaking shortly after police confirmed that Taylor, who disappeared from his Nigerian home in exile on Monday, had been arrested on Nigeria’s northeastern border while trying to escape into Cameroon.”Nigerian security forces, on the order of President Obasanjo, last night apprehended former Liberian president Charles Taylor in Gambaru, a Nigerian border town,” Nweke said.”The matter has since been reported to President Obasanjo who is currently in the United States of America where he is scheduled to meet President George Bush later today,” he added.The United States has led calls for Nigeria to detain and extradite Taylor and expressed “deep concern” at news of his disappearance, insisting that it was Obasanjo’s responsibility to ensure his guest faces justice.Nweke said the presidents would discuss “security, conflict resolution and development in Africa, including the disappearance of Charles Taylor from Calabar, his abode of more than two years.”Taylor, a one-time warlord and rebel leader, is charged with backing Sierra Leone rebels, including child fighters, who terrorised victims by chopping off body parts.While the Sierra Leone tribunal’s charges refer only to the war there, Taylor also has been accused of starting civil war in Liberia and of harbouring al Qaeda suicide bombers who attacked the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 200 people.Obasanjo initially resisted calls to surrender Taylor.But on Saturday, after Liberia’s new President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf asked that Taylor be handed over for trial, Obasanjo agreed.On Tuesday, a Nigerian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters, said Taylor had been in a guarded cavalcade of cars travelling Monday from Calabar to Port Harcourt, site of the nearest airport, when the convoy stopped and he was allowed to flee, possibly spirited away by commandos.The UN Security Council had expressed surprise and concern at Taylor’s disappearance and Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said he planned to talk to the Nigerian authorities about it.He urged all countries to refuse to give Taylor refuge.The UN tribunal’s prosecutor, Desmond de Silva, warned that Taylor was “a threat to the peace and security of West Africa.”Many of Taylor’s loyalist soldiers are believed to be roaming freely in Liberia, Sierra Leone and civil war-divided Ivory Coast, from where Taylor launched his rebel incursion into Liberia on Dec.24, 1989.- Nampa-AFP-APThe minister was speaking shortly after police confirmed that Taylor, who disappeared from his Nigerian home in exile on Monday, had been arrested on Nigeria’s northeastern border while trying to escape into Cameroon.”Nigerian security forces, on the order of President Obasanjo, last night apprehended former Liberian president Charles Taylor in Gambaru, a Nigerian border town,” Nweke said.”The matter has since been reported to President Obasanjo who is currently in the United States of America where he is scheduled to meet President George Bush later today,” he added.The United States has led calls for Nigeria to detain and extradite Taylor and expressed “deep concern” at news of his disappearance, insisting that it was Obasanjo’s responsibility to ensure his guest faces justice.Nweke said the presidents would discuss “security, conflict resolution and development in Africa, including the disappearance of Charles Taylor from Calabar, his abode of more than two years.”Taylor, a one-time warlord and rebel leader, is charged with backing Sierra Leone rebels, including child fighters, who terrorised victims by chopping off body parts.While the Sierra Leone tribunal’s charges refer only to the war there, Taylor also has been accused of starting civil war in Liberia and of harbouring al Qaeda suicide bombers who attacked the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 200 people.Obasanjo initially resisted calls to surrender Taylor.But on Saturday, after Liberia’s new President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf asked that Taylor be handed over for trial, Obasanjo agreed.On Tuesday, a Nigerian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters, said Taylor had been in a guarded cavalcade of cars travelling Monday from Calabar to Port Harcourt, site of the nearest airport, when the convoy stopped and he was allowed to flee, possibly spirited away by commandos.The UN Security Council had expressed surprise and concern at Taylor’s disappearance and Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said he planned to talk to the Nigerian authorities about it.He urged all countries to refuse to give Taylor refuge.The UN tribunal’s prosecutor, Desmond de Silva, warned that Taylor was “a threat to the peace and security of West Africa.”Many of Taylor’s loyalist soldiers are believed to be roaming freely in Liberia, Sierra Leone and civil war-divided Ivory Coast, from where Taylor launched his rebel incursion into Liberia on Dec.24, 1989.- Nampa-AFP-AP