LAGOS (AFP) — Zimbabwe's opposition leader has met former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and urged the west African nation to intervene in his country's post-election crisis, local media said Tuesday.
"Nigeria played a significant role during our struggle for independence and the crisis in Zimbabwe requires the attention of a country like Nigeria," Morgan Tsvangirai was quoted as saying during a visit to Obasanjo's Ota farm, near Lagos, on Monday.
He said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) -- which claimed victory in the March 29 presidential poll in Zimbabwe -- would also reach out to other African leaders to seek an end to the election impasse.
"With the situation we are facing in the country, especially with regard to the violence and manipulation of the electoral commission, we require a broader dimension," he added.
Tsvangirai met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Ghana on Monday and urged the United Nations and the African Union to intervene in the crisis.
The MDC leader has spent most of his time in recent weeks lobbying regional and international support for his argument that President Robert Mugabe is trying to rig his re-election after 28 years in power.
Zimbabwe's government last week accused Tsvangirai of treason by plotting with former colonial power Britain to oust veteran Mugabe.
After the last presidential elections, which he narrowly lost in 2002, Tsvangirai was tried for treason before being later acquitted.
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