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Still, Taylor very nearly slipped away. On March 25, Obasanjo, under pressure himself from the U.S., finally agreed to extradite Taylor. Two days later, as Nigeria and Liberia argued over who was responsible for transporting the former warlord to Sierra Leone, Taylor disappeared. Police sources in Calabar told TIME they believe Taylor's vanishing act was instigated by some of his supporters with the connivance of Nigerian officials, who wanted to relieve themselves of responsibility for arresting Taylor. Nigerian authorities arrested 22 police officers guarding his residence for "misconduct, dereliction of duty and offenses prejudicial to discipline," and Obasanjo has set up a panel to investigate Taylor's disappearance. "President Obasanjo obviously did not know about the plan to make Taylor 'disappear,' but some of his security aides knew," says an official in the State Security Service in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
It remains unclear whether the Nigerians' nabbing of Taylor came about by luck or by design. But that matters little to Liberians who suffered from his brutality. As long as Taylor evaded justice, there was always the chance he might one day return to power. Hours after Taylor's arrest, Nigeria put the former leader on a presidential jet bound for Liberia. On a rain-soaked runway, Taylor was handed over to Liberian authorities, who passed him on to U.N. soldiers, who choppered him to Freetown, Sierra Leone. A few hours later, Taylor sat in a prison cell, his likely home for years to come.