Already, the ECOWAS body has agreed to send military and
diplomatic emissaries to Ouagadougou, the capital of the country, today to
assess the situation.
This was disclosed to newsmen by Nigeria’s Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, after an emergency virtual meeting of the
ECOWAS apex decision-making body, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari, was
in support of the decisions taken.
According to him, Nigeria is fully in support of the ECOWAS
demand for an immediate return to constitutional rule, release of the detained
President Roch Marc Kabore and total cooperation with the regional body in the
process of sorting out the current situation.
He said: “The position is, of course, we condemn the coup
and ask for immediate return to constitutional order, the release of the
President and anybody else who’s being detained and to cooperate with ECOWAS
and to be part of ECOWAS decisions.”
On what President Buhari told the ECOWAS meeting, Onyema
said: “He said he was in support of the decisions that were taken at this
summit. They condemned the coup. They demanded immediate release of the
President, who is being detained, and an immediate process of return to
constitutional order.
“A decision that the Chiefs of Defense Staff of ECOWAS
Member States should head tomorrow (today) to Burkina Faso to assess the
situation from a strategic also military angle, and to be followed immediately
by a visit of a team of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of ECOWAS countries,
again, to assess the situation and then report to a meeting of the Heads of
States, and then a definitive decision will be taken as to how to proceed.
ECOWAS is going to have to engage with the junta. Well, you have to.”
Asked what might happen if the demands were not met, the
Minister said: “That’ll now be for the summit meeting, that’s what I was
saying, to now take a definitive decision because they would have had the
benefit of the input of the Chiefs of Defense Staff, the benefit of the input
of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, who would have gone there, and then they
will be in a position to now take an informed and definitive decision.”