President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Banjul, The Gambia, to compel the country’s President Yahya Jammeh, who lost the presidential election penultimate week, to respect the constitution of his country.
Jammeh initially conceded defeat in the election to Adama Barrow, after a 22-year rule, but recanted a week later stating that “unacceptable errors” were found by election officials. He is asking for fresh polls to be conducted by a “god-fearing and independent electoral commission.”
According to a statement by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, Buhari, who arrived in the company of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, who is the current chairperson of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, and President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra-Leone, were received at the airport by Gambia’s Vice-President, Isatou Njie-Saidy.
“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.
“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” the statement read.
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. Mahama also lost his re-election bid last week.
The leaders are also scheduled to meet with the President-elect, Adama Barrow.
President Buhari is expected back in Abuja later today after the meetings.
Jammeh, 51, has ruled the small West African nation since taking power in a military coup in 1994. He has won four subsequent elections and supported a 2002 constitutional amendment that removed presidential term limits in his country.
Barrow, also 51, represented a coalition of seven opposition parties that challenged Jammeh and eventually won the election.
