Pakistani president's Nigeria visit 'postponed'
The Pakistani leader was to arrive in Nigeria Monday for a three-day visit
LAGOS
Nigeria has announced the postponement of Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussein's scheduled three-day visit to the African country.
"I can confirm to you that the visit has been postponed, not cancelled," Ambassador Usman Baraya, the chief of protocol at Nigeria's Foreign Ministry, told Anadolu Agency in a telephone interview.
He did not give a reason for the postponement of the visit, which was originally scheduled to start Monday.
But some observers linked the decision to the ongoing security situation in Nigeria especially after 75 people were killed in a car bombing in the capital Abuja last week.
The Pakistani leader was to lead a 70-man delegation of top officials and businessmen on a three-day visit aimed at strengthening ties between both countries.
Nigeria and Pakistan had long enjoyed good relations and are key members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) formed in the 1950s as the cold war simmered between the West and the defunct Soviet Union.
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