150 children `died at sea'

Lagos - President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has said 150 Nigerian children died recently off the coast of west Africa on their…

Lagos - President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has said 150 Nigerian children died recently off the coast of west Africa on their way to Gabon to work as slaves, an official for the president's office reported yesterday.

President Obasanjo spoke of the deaths during a meeting with the Nigerian Council of Women Societies (NCWS) on Wednesday before leaving for the G8 summit in Genoa, according to Mr Attah Esa, a media affairs co-ordinator who attended the meeting.

Thousands of children between the ages of nine and 12 are thought to be working on plantations in Gabon and Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer. P}