Nigeria secretive about Taylor
2003-08-10 20:59
Abuja - Officials in Abuja were tight-lipped on where and when Liberian President Charles Taylor might arrive in Nigeria, which has offered him asylum after his expected hand over of power on Monday.
"I am not allowed to disclose the exact date of his arrival. It is a top secret we are keeping close to our chest," a top official in the Nigerian president's office said on Sunday.
Taylor has promised to step down from office Monday in Monrovia and head for Nigeria, but his destination remains uncertain.
Although some newspapers in Nigeria have suggested that Taylor may have chosen Libya over Nigeria as his destination, Nigerian officials said that they have no reason to believe that Taylor might have changed his mind.
Nigerian officials confirmed to AFP that a plush mansion in Calabar, capital of the southeastern Cross River State, was being prepared to accommodate Taylor and his entourage.
"Charles Taylor is still a sitting head of state. It is undiplomatic for Nigeria to disclose his movements, even if we know," said a senior official from the Nigerian foreign ministry, who asked not to be named.
Meeting with rebel leader
Meanwhile, President Olusegun Obasanjo met here on Sunday with the leader of Liberia's main rebel group, a presidential spokesperson said.
Sekou Damate Conneh, leader of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), told Obasanjo the aim of his visit was to thank the Nigerian government and people for their role in helping to restore peace to his country, spokesperson Oluremi Oyo said.
The LURD leader assured Obasanjo that Nigeria's "sacrifices will not be in vain this time around", said Oyo, who was present at the meeting between the two parties.
Nigeria last Monday began deploying a vanguard of about 770 soldiers to Liberia ahead of a much larger regional peacekeeping force.
The second Nigerian battalion, with roughly the same number of troops, is expected to begin deployment by the middle of this week, army spokesperson Emeka Onwumaegbu said.
Conneh, 42, said that once Taylor stepped down, as he has promised to do on Monday, the port in Liberia's capital would also be opened for humanitarian relief, Obasanjo's spokesperson added.
Taylor, a former warlord-turned president, has been indicted for war crimes by a UN tribunal in a Sierra Leone.
Nigeria has said that it will not negotiate over the indictment and that it would not accept any "harrassment" from the international community over his asylum, which it said it granted on humantarian grounds.
Two other Liberian ex-warlords granted asylum live in Nigeria.