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Former Liberian Leader Caught in Nigeria |
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By Franz Wild
Abidjan
29 March 2006
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Nigerian police say they have arrested Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor. President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered his immediate repatriation to Liberia.
A Nigerian police spokesman said they arrested former Liberian president Charles Taylor in the early hours of Wednesday morning, while he was trying to enter Cameroon at a remote border crossing in northeastern Borno state.
Nigerian authorities had said Mr. Taylor had disappeared from his villa in coastal Calabar late on Monday. He had been there since he was granted asylum by Nigeria three years ago.
On Saturday, the Nigerian government had agreed to hand Mr. Taylor over to Liberia, but insisted it was the Liberian government's responsibility to pick him up.
Mr. Taylor is indicted by a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said she does not want him on Liberian soil.
He faces 17 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over his alleged role in the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone where he is accused of backing rebels.