President Bola Tinubu Friday notified the National Assembly about the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) proposed military action against the Nigerien military junta who recently seized power.
The President in a letter addressed to the Senate and read at plenary by President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, stressed the need to restore democracy in the West African country.
The letter reads: “Following the unfortunate political situation in Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under my leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected govt. in a bid to restore peace, ECOWAS convened a meeting and came out with a communique.
“Closure and monitoring of all land borders with Niger Republic and reactivating of the border drilling exercise.
“Cutting off Electricity supply to Niger Republic. Mobilizing international support for the implementation of the provisions of the ECOWAS communique
“Preventing the operation of commercial and special flights into and from Niger Republic. Blockade of goods in transit to Niger especially from Lagos and eastern seaports.”
TheHintsNews reports that aggrieved military junta had on July 26 overthrown the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, and took over the leadership of the country. The soldiers were his guards.
Tinubu, who is also the chairman of ECOWAS, had met with some other leaders of member states on Sunday July 30 to discuss appropriate ways to restore democracy in Niger.
However, the coupist had denounced outside interference, saying it would resist any aggression.
The coupist had cited persistent insecurity as the main justification for seizing power, even though data on attacks shows security has actually been improving.
Nevertheless, Niger on Friday cut off diplomatic relations with Nigeria after peace talks initiated by the ECOWAS to resolve the ongoing crisis in the country appear to have failed.