Coup: Tinubu writes Senate to seek deployment of military to Niger

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

President Bola Tinubu has written the Senate to seek their support to deploy military to Niger Republic to enforce compliance if the junta failed to vacate office.

Tinubu, in the letter to the Senate, said following the unfortunate political situation in Niger Republic culminating in the overthrow of its President, ECOWAS under his leadership condemned the coup in its entirety and resolved to seek the return of the democratically elected government.

The president said in a bid to restore peace, ECOWAS convened a meeting and came out with a communique, one of which was the closure and monitoring of all land borders with Niger Republic and reactivating of the border drilling exercise.

He said another decision reached was the cutting off electricity supply to Niger Republic as well as mobilising international support for the implementation of the provisions of the ECOWAS communique and preventing the operation of commercial and special flights into and from Niger Republic.

Tinubu added in the letter that part of the decision of ECOWAS was the blockade of goods in transit to Niger, especially from Lagos and eastern seaports, embarking on sensitization of Nigeriens and Nigerians on the imperative of these actions particularly via social media.

He said a part of the communique was military build up and deployment of personnel for military intervention to enforce compliance of the military junta in Niger should the junta remain recalcitrant.