Gambia Impasse: Buhari, Johnson-Sirleaf, O)thers Arrive Banjul For Mediation

Posted by African Examiner African News, Featured, Latest Headlines Tuesday, December 13th, 2016

BANJUL, GAMBIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Banjul, the Gambia capital Tuesday morning to meet with the country’s outgoing President Yahya Jammeh, who lost the Presidential election penultimate week.

Buhari who arrived together with Chairperson of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, as Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Sierra-Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, were received at the airport by Gambia’s Vice-President, Isatou Njie-Saidy.

The outgoing President of Ghana, John Mahama, who had earlier arrived Banjul, will join the other West African leaders to meet President Jammeh at the CoCo Ocean Resort and Spa, Banjul.

It would be recalled that President Jammeh had earlier conceded defeat in the election, after a 22-year rule, but recanted a week later, asking for fresh polls to be conducted by a “god-fearing and independent electoral commission.”

In a statement issued in Abuja Tuesday by his SA on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adeshina, President Buhari and the ECOWAS leaders will discuss the ensuing impasse in The Gambia with President Jammeh, and insist on the sanctity of the electoral process and respect for the wishes of the people.

‘’They would also ask their host to respect the Constitution of his own country and maintain the inviolability of an electoral process that had been concluded and in which he had admitted defeat, and congratulated his main challenger, Adama Barrow.

The visiting West African Leaders are also scheduled to meet the President-elect, Mr. Barrow.

Buhari is expected back in Abuja later Tuesday.