Nigeria arrests Taylor guards

2006-03-29 08:43

Abuja - Nigeria has arrested 22 police officers who had been deployed to keep watch on former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, says a force spokesperson on Tuesday.

Taylor had been living in exile in a plush villa in the southeastern Nigerian city of Calabar, but was found to have left the house late on Monday, two days after President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to send him home.

Although the war crimes suspect was not considered by Nigerian authorities to be under house arrest, security forces were supposed to keep watch on him and international prosecutors had demanded he be detained.

Nigeria accused of negligence

Nigeria police spokesperson Haz Iwendi said: "Twenty two policemen who are supposed to be on duty providing security for Mr Charles Taylor have been ordered to be arrested... and they have been so arrested.

"They will be charged with misconduct and dereliction of duty."

Obasanjo had earlier ordered the setting up of a five-person panel to probe Taylor's disappearance and decide whether "he escaped or was abducted".

Human rights campaigners had accused Nigeria of negligence in allowing Taylor - who was wanted on an international arrest warrant to face 17 counts of crimes against humanity - to remain free.

Obasanjo had long resisted pressure to arrest Taylor and extradite him to Sierra Leone, where prosecutors at a UN-backed tribunal wanted him to face trial, but on Saturday the Nigerian leader invited Liberia to "take him in to custody".

- AFP