NIGERIA is to extradite Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, to face 17 counts of crimes against humanity, it was announced last night.

The Liberian government formally requested the extradition last week on behalf of a United Nations-backed special court in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

During Sierra Leone’s civil war, rebels supported by Taylor abducted children and hacked the limbs off civilians in a struggle to control its rich diamond fields.

No charges have yet been brought against him in his native Liberia, where he fought his way to the presidency during a separate 14- year civil war. It claimed up to 250,000 lives before he went into exile in 2003.

Earlier last week Taylor’s “spiritual adviser”, Kilari Anand Paul, warned that any handover would lead to “bloodshed and chaos”.

“Tens of thousands of people still live and die for Charles Taylor,” said the Indian-born evangelist from Texas after visiting him. “Extraditing him endangers the peace that has come to Liberia.”

Paul believes Taylor’s extradition is a ploy to gain American approval for proposed constitutional changes that could extend the rule of President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, a move strongly opposed by Washington.

Even those who support the extradition agree it is extremely sensitive. “There are still thousands of fighters who remain unemployed and frustrated by the same life conditions which drove them to form an armed group in the first place,” said Corinne Dufka, the west Africa head of Human Rights Watch.

“Mr Paul speaking as a proxy for Mr Taylor has worrying implications for the security situation in Liberia.”

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