Associate Professor of the University of Ghana School of Law, Prof Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua has stated that the immediate deployment of military to intervene in the coup in Niger by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), will not augur well.

According to him, if ECOWAS decides to interfere in the Niger coup "by intervening immediately with military, it will be a mess".

He said ECOWAS has not explored all the options of a diplomatic process, adding that, that option should be given more chance to prevail.

He believes it will be in ECOWAS’ interest not to rush with a military decision.  

His comments come as ECOWAS holds a series of meetings to discuss further action against the junta in Niger, and issuing an ultimatum against the coup leaders, which expired over the weekend.  

They also threatened military intervention against the country if the coup leaders fail to hand over power to President Mohamed Bazoum.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Tuesday, Prof Appiagyei- Atua said he is against the deployment of military into Niger.

He, however, said the military intervention process is available to ECOWAS, and Ghana as a member country has to comply with such a directive.

He explained that ECOWAS decided to use the approach to force the junta to come to the negotiation table.

He added that he feels ECOWAS decided to go by this approach because it wants to put some fear into the junta just as it did in The Gambia for the coup leader to relinquish his decision.

“I think that they are adopting this approach whereby they are still exploring diplomatic options and saying that in the case of last resort, this is what we are going to do,” he added.