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Guns And Poses Cause Row Between Obasanjo, Qaddafi
ABUJA, Feb 14 (News Agencies) - A row over the extraordinary security precautions of Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi caused cancellation of a visit here Wednesday, straining relations between the self-styled architect of African unity and its most populous nation.
Qaddafi, who often travels Africa surrounded by a large team of heavily armed security agents, had been invited to give a speech Wednesday on his favorite theme of African unity.
But the visit was abruptly cancelled on Tuesday and Qaddafi stayed on in Khartoum where he had been attending a conference.
Information Minister Jerry Gana told reporters Wednesday that Nigerian security agents had baulked when advance security for the Libyan leader arrived in Abuja bearing high-caliber weaponry.
"Our security officers ... were very clear that there are certain categories or grades of guns that cannot be brought to Nigeria by security officers accompanying visiting heads of state," Gana said.
"There was a lack of approval for bringing that type of guns into the nation," he added, assuring that "the Nigerian defense and security forces have done and will continue to be able to defend foreign and visiting heads of state."
At the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in Togo last year, the Libyan leader's security team set up mounted machine-gun posts and dug a trench across a beach leading to the hotel where he was staying.
Gana declined to detail the weaponry his advance security team had sought to bring to Nigeria.
Meanwhile, a presidency official said on Tuesday that the visit had been cancelled because President Olusegun Obasanjo objected when told Qaddafi also planned to visit the northern state of Zamfara.
Zamfara is a sensitive area in Nigeria because it was the first state in the north to impose Islamic law since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999, and Obasanjo reportedly did not want Qaddafi to go there.
Presidency sources reiterated the report to Nigerian newspapers Wednesday. "FG [government] halts Gaddafi's visit over Zamfara" was the headline of the newspaper Vanguard.
Gana denied that report Wednesday.
"The Libyan leader never requested to visit Zamfara State during his visit to Nigeria ... so the question of being refused a visit to Zamfara does not even arise," he said.
But he did say the government had objected to a request by Qaddafi to visit for "four or more days".
"A request came that he wanted more or less a state visit that would last for four or more days. ... Given other engagements by [Obasanjo] it was not possible to grant that request," Gana said.
Gana declined to detail what Qaddafi had been planning to do in Nigeria for his stay.
According to an official program for the visit released last week, the Libyan leader had planned to make a speech and to lay the foundation stone of a building identified only as "Islam in Africa".
On his previous visit in 1998, Qaddafi visited the northern city of Kano and pledged to build an Islamic university there.
Kano is one of 10 states that have since 1999 introduced or extended Islamic law in the northern region.
The visit by Qaddafi to Nigeria was to have been the first since the Libyan authorities expelled thousands of Nigerians and other black Africans in October following racist attacks by Libyan Arabs on blacks in which many dozens died.
An anti-Libyan protest was held in Lagos following those deportations and three men died. Ironically, the protest was held outside a U.S. embassy building.
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