Nigeria has offered Guinea-Bissau’s opposition presidential candidate Fernando Dias protection at its embassy in the capital Bissau following a military coup, the Nigerian foreign ministry said on Monday.
The offer came as leaders from the Economic Community of West African States regional bloc, led by Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio, tried to persuade the military officers who seized power in Guinea-Bissau last week to stand down.
At a meeting on Monday during which tempers flared and voices were raised according to a Reuters witness, ECOWAS officials urged the soldiers to allow a proclamation of the results of the country’s disputed presidential election.
“ECOWAS … demands the restoration of constitutional order, as well as the continuation and logical conclusion of the electoral process,” Timothy Musa Kabba, Sierra Leone’s foreign minister, said after the meeting with the military leaders.
“As for Guinea-Bissau’s future, a decision will be taken during the (ECOWAS) conference of heads of state and government scheduled for December 14,” he said. ECOWAS has warned it could impose sanctions on Guinea-Bissau.
The interim president installed by military officers, Major-General Horta Inta-a, said the coup was necessary to ward off a plot by “narcotraffickers” to “capture Guinean democracy” and vowed to oversee a transition that would last one year, beginning immediately.
Guinea-Bissau election commission says cannot conclude presidential election process
Guinea-Bissau’s electoral commission said on Tuesday it is unable to finalize the November 23 presidential election after armed men seized ballots and vote tallies from its offices.
Army officers in the West African state seized power on November 26, a day before the electoral commission was due to announce the results of the contested election.
“We are not in material and logistic conditions to follow (through with) the electoral process,” Idrissa Djalo, a senior official of the electoral commission, said in a statement.
