Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday met with the leadership of the National Assembly for the third time within a week to discuss national issues.
Their visit, which seems a bit unusual, raised concerns at the Aso Rock when the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, and speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara arrived the presidential villa in the same vehicle.
Osinbajo on Monday met with Dogara and the majority leader, Ahmed Lawan separately, and he later met with the Senate president and the speaker on Tuesday, where they discussed Nigeria’s planned road show as part of ways to revive the economy.
Emerging from the meeting with the acting President at the Presidential Villa, which lasted for about an hour, Saraki said they had come to discuss the issue of Nigeria’s troop in The Gambia.
According to Saraki, while the Navy and the Air Force will be returning home some of the troops will be left behind in the West African country to help maintain peace.
“The Acting President is briefing us on our trip to The Gambia and what the situation is. And that the Navy and the Air Force will be coming back and that is likely some troops will be left behind,” he said.
Nigerian troops had been deployed to The Gambia at the height of the political crisis when former President Yahya Jammeh refused to concede defeat in the December 1, 2016, presidential elections after losing to Adama Barrow.
Jammeh who had ruled for 22 years was forced to relinquish power on January 19, 2017, by the regional body Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who deployed troop in the country with a mandate to chase him out.
He finally left office and subsequently The Gambia going into exile in Guinea, after several diplomatic shuttles and a show of force by the ECOWAS standby force.
The ECOWAS mediation team was led by President Muhammadu Buhari and former President of Ghana, John Mahama.
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