ABUJA, March 28: Former Liberian leader and war crimes suspect Charles Taylor has disappeared from the villa in which he was living in exile in Nigeria, the Nigerian presidency said on Tuesday. Taylor left the plush riverside home in the southeastern city of Calabar on Monday night, a statement said, only 48 hours after President Olusegun Obasanjo had said west Africa’s most notorious warlord would be handed back to Liberia.

Obasanjo has given a five-member panel two weeks to investigate ‘the circumstances of the disappearance ... with a view to identifying those responsible’ and ‘ascertain whether he escaped or was abducted’, it added.

“All the security people who were in charge of looking after Mr Taylor have been arrested,” added Obasanjo’s spokeswoman, Remi Oyo.

Liberia’s Information Minister Johnny McClain said the government in Monrovia had not been informed of Taylor’s disappearance, which he described as media ‘speculation’.

“We have not received any communication from Nigeria on this matter,” McClain told AFP, adding ‘this government cannot comment on speculation in the media’.

Journalists who visited Taylor last week in Calabar saw no evidence of any Nigerian security on the approach road to his villa and were waved into his compound without being questioned by a single gateman in civilian clothes.

International prosecutors and human rights advocates had warned that if Taylor were able to escape extradition to a UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone he might once again endanger the stability of west Africa.

The escape will also be an embarrassment to Obasanjo on the eve of a visit to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, as the United States this week urged Nigeria to ensure that Taylor will face trial for his alleged atrocities.

On Monday, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of Taylor: “He needs to be brought to justice. It is incumbent upon the Nigerian government now to see that he is conveyed to the international court.

“Obviously, we have talked to President Obasanjo about this,” he added. Earlier, the chief prosecutor at Sierra Leone’s war crimes court had expressed concern that Taylor might try to escape justice.—AFP