Nigeria has agreed to a request by Caribbean leaders to grant former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide temporary asylum, the nation's presidency said Monday.
| He can bunk with Charlie! |
The request came from the 15-nation Caribbean Community, known as Caricom, Nigerian presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo said in a statement late Monday. The statement did not say whether Aristide had requested - or even agreed to - asylum in Nigeria.
"Nigeria! I don't want to go there!"
"It's either that or return to the Central African Republic."
"Lagos is rather lovely this time of year!" |
Caricom, "under the leadership" of Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, "requested Nigeria to consider giving former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti 'a staging post' for a few weeks until his movement to another destination," said the presidential statement, issued in the capital, Abuja. "After receiving the Caricom request, Nigeria undertook widespread consultations with African leaders, the leadership of the African Union, the U.S. government and other concerned parties," the statement said. "Nigeria has agreed to grant the request." A spokesman for Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue welcomed Nigeria's offer. "We didn't want any destablization so its good news if he can find a place" outside the region, he said.
| Kamchatka would have been better. |
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