Nigeria: we won't be intimidated: Nigeria is set on a collision course with the US over the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor's asylum in Nigeria. Meanwhile, Nigeria says it is safe enough to host the Commonwealth Heads of Commonwealth Meeting in Abuja from 5-8 December.

Nigeria is set on a collision course with the US over the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor's asylum in Nigeria. Meanwhile, Nigeria says it is safe enough to host the Commonwealth Heads of Commonwealth Meeting in Abuja from 5-8 December.

Reports that the US president, George Bush, has set aside a $2m bounty for the capture of the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, to stand trial at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, has angered the Nigeria government, forcing a presidential spokeswoman in Abuja to say Nigeria "will not succumb to intimidation from any quarter".

The Voice of America (VOA) reported on 7 November that President Bush had authorised the payment of $2m in reward money for the capture of Charles Taylor, and that the $2m was included in the $87.5 billion approved by Congress on 25 October to fund America's operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The reward money on Liberia will be used For the capture of what the legislations [signed by Bush on 25 October] termed as 'an indectee of the Special Court for Sierra Leone", the VOA reported, adding that "the indictee is not named in the legislation, but government and Congressional sources told VOA that the indictee is Charles Taylor."

Obviously angered by what it calls "intimidation" by the US, Nigeria has since stepped up security around Charles Taylor's residence in Calabar, eastern Nigerian. Remi Oyo, a presidential spokeswoman told journalists in Abuja that "Nigeria, as a sovereign nation, will not succumb to any act of intimidation from any quarter".

To make herself clear, she repeated to the assembled journalists: "Although we have not been formally approached over the matter, we will not accept any intimidation or blackmail."

Oyo explained that President Obasanjo granted asylum to Taylor only after wide consultations with African and international leaders. That was why Taylor was accompanied to Nigeria by Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, John Kufuor of Ghana, Joaquinn Chissano of Mozambique (who doubles as the current chairman of the African Union), and of course President Obasanjo. Taylor's departure was one of the key conditions put down by Liberian rebels for the return of peace to their troubled country.

He was indicted on 4 June by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for "bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious violations international humanitarian law within the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996".

But Nigeria insists that it would not allow itself be "harassed by anyone", especially when it was given the green light by African and world leaders to grant asylum to Taylor.

"Neither do we expect any country to violate our sovereignty by attempting to capture Taylor," said Remi Oyo. "That would not be the act of a friendly nation," she warned.

Asked if Taylor was keeping his side of the bargain, Oyo replied: "We would like to think so, yes."

* Meanwhile, Nigeria's inspector general of police, Tafa Balogun, has said contrary to British media reports of a possible Al Qaeda attack during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (5-8 December), everybody attending the meeting (including Queen Elizabeth II) will be safe in the country, Cameron Duodu reports from Abuja.

In October, the British weekly, The Sunday Telegraph, had claimed that British intelligence agencies feared that when the head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, arrived in Nigeria to open the meeting, she could be the "target of an Al Qaeda attack?"

But, according to Balogun: "There is not an iota of truth in the trepidation being transmitted to the British public that the Queen will not be sale here."

He told New, African: "The Queen's visit to Nigeria bar attracted a lot of preparations at governmental Level in Nigeria. In the last three to four months, we have embarked on massive preparations to honour the Queen and also to ensure her total security. Not because we fear for her safety, but because, traditionally, we have to give maximum security to Her Majesty when she is here.

"And I want to say that a lot has been poured into the preparations in terms of man-hours, and the calibre of people who meet to discuss these preparations is very, very high. The vice-president [Alhaji Atiku Abubakar] is the chairman of the arrangements, and the national security adviser [Gen Aliyu Mohammed] is the chairman of the [security] sub-committee. And all our activities are co-ordinated by the president [Olusegun Obasanjo] himself.

"So, I want to say to the British people, that I, the inspector-general of police, by virtue of what we have on the ground here, [and] by virtue of the privileged information I have about the security of this country, [affirm] that all Nigerians love to see the Queen, and those people who are spreading all sorts of useless rumours about insecurity are detractors of Nigeria. And they are infinitesimal in number. The Queen will be sale with us. She is the mother of all of us and we love her."

When asked if there was a problem with Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria, as seen from the riots of last year over the Miss World beauty pageant when a journalist commented about what Prophet Mohammed would have thought about the beautiful women competing in the pageant, Balogun replied: "Per se, there is no Islamic fundamentalism in this country. What you have, and what confuses everybody, are miscreants, thugs and hooligans who want to use religion to truncate the peace that we have.

"Top traditional rulers, top members of the political class and top people in government are Muslims, and the same thing goes for Christians. Bur I have not seen any of these top people--by virtue of the privileged security information that I have--using religion to foment trouble. You have miscreants, rogues and vagabonds in any society who want to cause confusion, so that they can use it as an avenue to steal and perpetrate other dastardly acts. But they are very small in number, and many a time, we arrest such people and send them to prison."

Balogun appears to be a new breed policeman who prefers brain to brawn. A qualified lawyer who has also read sociology, he recently caused a sensation in Nigeria when he mounted a clandestine operation into neighbouring Benin and arrested a Nigerian who lived there, called Hamani Tidjani. In collaboration with some top officials of the Benin police and gendarmerie, Tidjani ran a syndicate that organised armed robberies in Nigeria, killing people and stealing their vehicles--especially posh cars. The report that Balogun submitted to President Obasanjo so infuriated him that he immediately closed Nigeria's border with Benin.

President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin sued for peace and was forced to sack 13 top commanders of the Beninois police, army and gendarmerie. Other countries that allow their te ritory to be used as a springboard for criminal activity against Nigeria, had better take warning!