Gambia: Buhari, W/African leaders meet in Abuja to decide Jammeh”s fate

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday host four other West African leaders to a meeting aimed at avoiding violence and preserving democracy in The Gambia.   The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday. The presidential spokesman said this was in furtherance […]

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday host four other West African leaders to a meeting aimed at avoiding violence and preserving democracy in The Gambia.
 
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

The presidential spokesman said this was in furtherance of President Buhari’s mandate as mediator in the political impasse in The Gambia.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh had refused to accept defeat in the last month’s election after he had initially accepted his loss in the December 1 election, but later changed his stance and vowed to cling on to power.

Shehu said today’s meeting in Abuja is following the one in Accra on the sidelines of the inauguration of Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Ado where the sub-region’s leaders expressed readiness to continue the pursuit of dialogue with the leaders of The Gambia.
 
Expected at the meeting, according to Shehu, are Liberian and Senegalese presidents as well as the vice president of Sierra-Leone and the immediate past president of Ghana, John Mahama.
 
Shehu recalled that President Buhari and Mahama as mediator and co-mediator respectively had been mandated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to ensure the safety of Gambian President-elect Adama Barrow and ensure a peaceful handover of power on January  19.