President John Dramani Mahama has arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, for an ECOWAS heads of state summit.
This will be his last ECOWAS meeting before leaving office in January 2017.
The three-day summit will see the West African leaders discuss ways of convincing Gambia President Yahya Jammeh, to step down after losing in the country’s recently held general elections.
[contextly_sidebar id=”6R1guYvB6z87fZXkx2snRJMeLA38keia”]An earlier delegation of West African presidents who talked to Mr. Jammeh into accepting the result of the polls last Monday, did not yield the expected results.
The situation has led the country into a political crisis as the President-elect Adama Barrow, has threatened to swear himself in as substantive president when the tenure of outgoing Yahya Jammeh runs out on January 18, 2017.
Yayha Jammeh who conceded defeat after the declaration of electoral results, joined his party to challenge the outcome of the same results in the country’s Supreme Court.
He is demanding a rerun of the elections which he says was rigged and characterized by a number of irregularities.
Yahya Jammeh has been in power since 1994.
‘Yahya Jammeh may face sanctions’
Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) Regional Envoy, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has said that the Gambian President will be greatly sanctioned if he tries to stay in power.
The United States and the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, have also urged the Gambian security forces to leave the country’s electoral commission office, which they seized on Tuesday, urging calm in the country.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor