President John Dramani Mahama is in Abuja, Nigeria, with other West African leaders in a bid to continue with their efforts at resolving the current political stalemate in The Gambia.
Today’s crucial meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will seek to mount pressure on The Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh to accept the decision of The Gambian people in the December 1, 2016 presidential election which saw Mr Adama Barrow, a businessman, emerge victorious.
The Abuja meeting comes days after the The Gambian leader had rejected attempts by a four-member delegation of ECOWAS that was in Banjul on December 13 to convince him to accept the results.
The Banjul mediation group, which was led by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is the Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, also included President Mahama, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma.
U-turn
President Jammeh, who had earlier called the opposition leader on phone to concede defeat in the historic election, took a U-turn and rejected the results days later.
He has now decided to contest the results of the polls in court much to the chagrin of The Gambian people and the international community.
As of press time yesterday, it was unclear whether President Jammeh would attend the Abuja meeting.
For President Mahama who lost the December 7 presidential election to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he probably would be attending his last ECOWAS meeting before bowing out on January 7, 2017 as Ghana’s President.
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