President John Dramani Mahama has arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, for an ECOWAS heads of state summit.<\/p>\n
This will be his last ECOWAS meeting before leaving office in January 2017.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s recently held general elections.<\/p>\n
[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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Yayha Jammeh who\u00a0conceded defeat after the declaration of electoral results, joined his party to challenge the outcome of the same results in the country’s Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
He is demanding a rerun of the elections which he says was rigged and characterized by a number of irregularities.<\/p>\n
Yahya Jammeh has been in power since 1994.<\/p>\n
\u2018Yahya Jammeh may face sanctions\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>–<\/p>\n By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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