he Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) has given the embattled President of The Gambia, Mr.
Yahya Jammeh, till midnight tomorrow to vacate office and hand over
power to the country’s President-Elect, Mr. Adama Barrow, or be ousted
by force. According to the report, ECOWAS has perfected plans to install
the president-elect should Jammeh make bold his threat to continue in
office after the expiration of his tenure.
Efforts by Jammeh to
erect a legal hurdle in the way of the ECOWAS-backed inauguration of
Barrow suffered a serious setback yesterday as the country’s Supreme
Court declined to hear an application by his party to that effect. Last
Thursday, the country’s ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and
Construction (APRC) filed an application for an interlocutory injunction
seeking to stop the inauguration of Mr. Barrow as President on January
19.
But the Chief Justice of the Gambia, Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle
refused to grant the application. Barrow was declared winner of the
December 1, 2016 presidential election. Jammeh, who had initially
accepted defeat by congratulating Barrow, suddenly recanted a week later
saying he would challenge the election results at the apex court. His
recant threw the country into confusion amid intervention by African
leaders suing for a peaceful transition. The African Union (AU) and
ECOWAS have pledged to withdraw their recognition of Jammeh as President
after Thursday.
But Nigerian officials played down the planned
military intervention by the sub-region’s power block last night, saying
ECOWAS still hoped Jammeh would respect himself and leave office by
tomorrow night.
“From what I gathered, they are extending the olive
branch till midnight of January 18th. If he does not (handover power) by
19th, the troops will take over,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
last night. Asked about the composition of troops and Nigeria’s
strategic role, the source responded: “I don’t have an idea of the troops but they are from ECOWAS.”
However,
the Director of Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Sani Usman, said he
was not aware of plans for military intervention, explaining that such
issues fall squarely under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the federal government.
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