03-27-06,9:49am

ABUJA, 25 Mar 2006 (IRIN) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday said Liberia is “free to take” former President Charles Taylor who is living in exile in Nigeria and is indicted for war crimes by a United Nations-backed court.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf returned on Saturday from a tour of the United States where she had told the UN Security Council “it is time to bring the Taylor issue to closure.”

Nigeria received Liberia's official request for Taylor on 5 March and on Saturday agreed to hand Taylor over to Liberian custody.

“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,” said a Nigerian government statement.

Liberian government officials declined to comment.

Taylor, warlord-turned-president, quit power in August 2003 under international pressure and took exile in Nigeria. Taylor is wanted by a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone that has charged him with 17 counts of war crimes in that country’s civil war. The counts include supplying rebels with arms in return for diamonds.

Obasanjo had previously said that he would hand Taylor over to Liberia on the request of an elected Liberian president. Sirleaf took office in January as Liberia's first elected president after 14 years of on-off civil war.

In Liberia Sando Johnson, a parliamentarian under Taylor, said the former president would not get a fair trial if he is taken to the Special Court in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. “The Freetown venue will be very hostile to Taylor. We do not think he could get due process of law in that country.'

But Aloysius Toe, a leading local rights campaigner who was imprisoned under Taylor, said war crimes victims across the region would welcome the decision. “This is a welcome move by the Nigerian government and it is in the interest of justice across West Africa,” said Toe.

“His handover will give hope to thousands of people who were victims during the bloody civil war in Sierra Leone which Taylor stands accused of facilitating.”