Taylor guarded closely
2003-11-09 09:23
Abuja - Security has been stepped up around the luxury villa of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor in the southeastern Nigerian port city of Calabar since news of the US reward for his capture emerged.
Nigeria has said that it will not give in to intimidation from anyone after the United States slapped a $2m bounty on the head of Taylor, who has been granted asylum by Abuja.
"Nigeria as a sovereign nation will not succumb to any act of intimidation from any quarter," Remi Oyo, spokesperson for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has said.
"Although we have not been formally approached over the matter (Taylor), we will not accept any intimidation or blackmail," Oyo said.
Another presidential spokesperson says Nigeria was shocked by a US reward that encouraged lawless and illegal behaviour.
"This is a little bit close to what many of us would describe as state-sponsored terrorism," said spokesperson Femi Fane Kayode.
The US Congress included a reward of $2m for Taylor's capture in its nearly $88bn budget for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Consulted widely
Oyo said Obasanjo had consulted widely among African and international leaders before offering asylum to Taylor, whose departure from Liberia was one of the key conditions the country's rebels imposed before they would accept a peace deal.
Washington offered the bounty for Taylor to help bring him before a special United Nations tribunal on war crimes in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbour.
He is wanted by the court to answer charges of arming and training rebels from Sierra Leone's notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which is accused of raping and dismembering thousands of people during a 10-year civil war that claimed about 200 000 lives.