President Nana Akufo-Addo – Chairman of ECOWAS
Members of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are currently locked up in a meeting in search of a probable solution to the Guinea crisis.
Some aggrieved soldiers seized political power in that country Sunday, arrested President Alpha Conde, suspended Guinea’s Constitution and dissolved its Parliament, a development which has been roundly condemned in no uncertain terms by the world body United Nations (UN), continental group, the African Union (AU) and sub regional group, ECOWAS.
They have since asked the mutineers led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, Commander of the Special Forces branch of the Guinean army to not only restore the country back to normalcy under democracy rule but asked them to release the President who is literally being kept under lock and key with immediate effect.
President Akufo-Addo who is Chairman of the sub regional group thus called for an emergency virtual summit to find a way out of the standoff.
At the opening, President Akufo-Addo described the ousting of Alpha Conde as “regrettable and unfortunate.”
That, he said was because the incident was “a clear violation of our common charter of good governance” in the ECOWAS Region.
Representatives of the United Nations, the African Union and other stakeholders are participating in the meeting, which has since gone into plenary.
The bloc is expected to leverage the meeting to reinforce its objection to the unconstitutional political change in that country, and the need for actors in the political situation to abide by the Guinea’s Constitutional dictates and the rule of law.
A communique is expected to be issued after the deliberations.
Soldiers, reportedly led by a former French Legionnaire, Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, announced last Sunday that they had seized power and arrested 83-year old President Conde, and suspended the Constitution of the West African nation.
They appeared on national television, with some draped in the red, gold and green flag of Guinea, to announce that the Government had been dissolved because of rampant corruption.
Those behind the coup said that all land and air borders had been closed for a week.
President Conde is still being held by the coup makers.
Some other persons who were arrested in the process have been released.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent