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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday, July 05, 2004.
I
prefer handing over Taylor to Liberia, not U.S., says Obasanjo
By
Victor Efeizomor,
Law Reporter
President
Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he would rather hand over former Liberian
President Charles Taylor to a democratically elected Liberian Government
than release him to the United States.
Handing
Taylor over the U.S., he explained at the weekend, would breach the
agreement reached with African heads of state when he granted him
political asylum in Nigeria to stop the war in Liberia.
Obasanjo
made the declaration in Abuja during a meeting with members of Human
Rights Watch (HRW), a U.S. based human rights organisation. He argued
that it will be unreasonable to breach a gentleman’s agreement with
Taylor as that is the basis for which he agreed to step down as Liberian
President and come to Nigeria on asylum.
Members
of HRW who visited Obasanjo were Executive Director Ken Roth, United
Kingdom Director Steve Crawshow and Carina Tevtsakian, a HRW researcher
of Nigeria affairs based in the UK.
The
group also visited Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Justice Minister
Akinlolu Olujinmi as well as the defence minister to canvass for the
repatriation of Taylor and to discuss ways to stem the tide of
extra-judicial killings in Nigeria.
Roth
stated in an interview that despite civilian democracy in Nigeria, the
group is disturbed by political violence among members of the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He
said the response from Obasanjo on Taylor’s continued stay in the country
rather than going to answer the charges against in Sierra Leone is “not too satisfactory”, and
that Nigerians should resist
the stay of a world class criminal in their country.
Said
Roth: “My question to Obasanjo is why are we treating the Liberian
victims better than the Sierra Leone victims because there was massive
bloodshed in Sierra Leone which Taylor caused, and the special court in
Sierra Leone was set up by the people to deal with those behind the
crime. And why is it not
possible for Obasanjo to respond to the appeal from Sierra Leone and
deliver Taylor? I did not receive a good answer to that question”.
“I
urge Nigerians who are not happy to prevail on their President to release
the world class criminal in their mist, it is a symbol of lawlessness,
sheltered by President Obasanjo. I don’t think that is what the Nigerian
people want, I hope they will appeal to their government to end this
embarrassing refugee and deliver Charles Taylor to justice”.
Roth
also deplored communal violence in various part of the country,
especially those in Plateau and Kano States, saying the crisis got to the
present level because the authorities did not respond to earlier calls to
end such it.
HRW
urged Abuja to release the report of the Human Rights Commission led by
Justice Chukwudifu Oputa and other public enquiries on violence in the
country to help stave off the recurrence of such incidents in future.
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