The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) says it won’t accept the Republic of Niger junta’s three-year power transition plan.
The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musa, disclosed this on Sunday during an interview with the BBC.
The leader of the Niger junta, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, stated in a televised broadcast on Saturday night that the army will only hand over power to the civilian government in the next three years.
However, Abdel-Fatau Musa, during the interview with BBC, described Tchiani’s proposal as a smokescreen for dialogue and diplomacy.
Also on Saturday, Nigeria’s former Military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, led a delegation of ECOWAS to Niger in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to reach a peaceful resolution with the junta.
The delegation met with the ousted Niger President Mohamed Bazoum after meeting Tchiani, but no truce has been reached yet.
Meanwhile, The delegation of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) led by General Abdulsalami Abubakar has finally met with the coup plotters in Niger Republic and the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
However, discussions at the meeting were not made public as at press time.
The meeting, yesterday, came about three weeks after an earlier attempt by an ECOWAS team failed to meet the warring parties in the Niger because the coupists refused to talk with the delegation.
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Tchiani, however, apologised on behalf of his team when some Islamic scholars met with the junta within the week, saying they were not happy at ECOWAS for giving them a seven-day ultimatum to quit without hearing their side of the story.
During the initial visit, Abdulsalami was reportedly accompanied by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Abubakar, and the President of the ECOWAS commission, Alieu Touray.
It was gathered that the ECOWAS delegation after being received by the Prime Minister, Ali Lamine Zeine, while on the a repeat visit, met with the team from the military government, headed by Abdourahmane Tchiani, before going into a discussion with the ousted president, Bazoum.
