President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire says the
decision by the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy
troops to the Niger Republic was taken collectively by member states.
Recall that ECOWAS on Thursday during its second
extraordinary meeting, directed the deployment of standby military troops to
restore constitutional order in the Niger Republic.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting in Abuja, Outarra
described the detention of the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum by the military
junta in Niger as “an act of terrorism”.
“We had a very good summit. We thank President Tinubu for
having us, for his hospitality and for the people of Nigeria,” he said.
“As you’re aware,
this is the second summit in 10 days that we have organised on Niger and this
is a critical problem we have to solve.
“As you’re aware, ECOWAS has taken many decisions in the
past, legal and factual about the coup d’etat and the community has always
condemned coup d’etat and coup d’etat have happened in many countries in the
sub-region.
“ECOWAS has intervened in the past in Liberia, Sierra Leone,
and recently in Gambia, Guinea Bissau and today we have a similar situation in
Niger. I would like to say that ECOWAS cannot accept this. This is not a matter
of Nigeria against Niger, not at all.
“We have sent a delegation,
high personalities like former president Abdulsalami Abubakar, the Sultan of
Sokoto, former governor of CBN Sanusi, my friend and many other personalities
in this important country, to talk to the people of Niger.
“But they are keeping President Bazoum as a hostage. I
personally consider this as a terrorist act and we cannot let this continue. We
have to act.
“ECOWAS is nearly 400 million people, 240 million in
Nigeria, 140 million in the West African monetary union. So this is 400 million
people. If we do not have democracy, do you think that our countries will be
able to move ahead? This coup d’etat is not acceptable.”
Also speaking with reporters, Macky Sall, Senegalese
president, said he was in support of the decision taken by ECOWAS.
“I support the action
that has been proposed by ECOWAS that we do not accept this coup to stand and
that we make every effort to make sure that constitutional order returns to
Niger,” Sall said.
“If we had made mistakes in the past, we should try to
correct them now. There is always a time to get started. I think it was a
mistake not to have taken action previously, but now that we are together on
this, we should take action to make sure that it does not continue.”
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