Statement by the Federal Government of Nigeria – Former President Charles Taylor to be Transferred to the Custody of the Government of Liberia, March 25, 2006. Text:

On March 5th, 2006, a formal request was sent to President Olusegun Obasanjo by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia requesting that former President Charles Taylor be turned over to the custody of the Government of Liberia.

Considering the involvement of the African Union and ECOWAS in the arrangement which resulted in the voluntary relinquishing of office by President Charles Taylor and his abode in Nigerian in 2003, President Obasanjo consulted the current and past Chairmen of the AU and ECOWAS.

It should be recalled that at the time, the understanding among those involved in the arrangement was that the departure of Charles Taylor was a pre-requisite for the implementation of the just concluded Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement on Liberia, but that both the AU and ECOWAS could not hand over President Charles Taylor to the Sierra Leone Special Court as rather precipitately demanded by the Court's prosecutor.

Since 2003, the Federal Government of Nigeria has resisted persistent pressures to violate the understanding of 2003 and to deliver Charles Taylor to the Sierra Leone Special Court. Rather, the Federal Government has insisted that Charles Taylor can only be turned over, on request, to a democratically-elected government of Liberia at a time that such a Government considers appropriate.

The request of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in her letter of 5th March constituted her determination that the time was opportune. With no substantive objection other than timing and continued peace in Liberia raised by those other Heads of State involved in the 2003 arrangement, President Olusegun Obasanjo has today March 25th informed President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that the Government of Liberia is free to take former President Charles Taylor into its custody.

Read the original text of the statement from the Nigeria Office of Public Communications. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.