President Akufo-Addo has joined other West-African leaders in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss the crucial political situation in Niger.

The President, last week, agreed to a collective decision by ECOWAS to deploy military troops to restore constitutional order if the presidential guard which ousted the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum does not reinstate him within one week.

But information reaching JoyNews, indicate that there seems to be a change in the earlier stated decision.

According to reports, the Chairperson of the ECOWAS, Bola Ahmed Tinubu [Nigeria’s president] while speaking at the emergency summit, stated that ECOWAS would first have to exhaust all measures before they proceed with their decision to deploy the troops.

Background

On Wednesday, July 26, a coup was declared by a military group in Niger.

The Nigerien president, Mohamed Bazuom has been held captive at the presidential palace in Niamey, since the coup was declared.

The United States and other organisations such as ECOWAS  have since been calling for the immediate release of the president.

ECOWAS on July 30, gave a one-week ultimatum to the junta to cede power and imposed sanctions imposed financial sanctions on the country under the coup leaders.

But the coup plotters did not give in to the threats from ECOWAS.

On Thursday, August 10, the coup plotters announced the formation of a new government hours before the ECOWAS meeting scheduled on the same day.