Report : Mills Masterminded Ouattara Investiture

It has emerged that President John Evans Atta Mills is the man who masterminded the return of Paul Yao N'Dre, the head of the Constitutional Council of Ivory Coast to his country to make way for last weekend�s investiture of President Alassane Ouattara. An Ivorian newspaper, Info Soir, in its May 11, 2011 edition detailed how Ghana�s president persuaded Mr N'Dre to return to his country and swear in Mr Ouattara. Mr N'Dre in December overturned earlier results announced and declared deposed leader Laurent Gbagbo as winner of the polls. His change of mind was critical since he is the only man mandated by the country�s constitution to swear in democratically elected Presidents of Ivory Coast. A copy of the newspaper available to Citifmonline.com outlined a detailed analysis of President Mills� critical role in ensuring that Alassane Ouatara was sworn in as President. This is contrary to reports that President Mills was helping some pro-Gbagbo supporters to overthrow the Ouattara government. In an interview with Citi News, Director of Communications at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, confirmed the publication, adding that there was no need to make President Mills� role known to the public. �Mr N'Dre was here in Ghana with the former Ivory Coast Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ackah and President Mills implored Mr N'Dre to go back and rescind his earlier decision of swearing in Mr Gbagbo and then swear in Mr Ouattara as President so the investiture could take place. "Without Mr N'Dre going back to Cote d�Ivoire it would have been difficult for the investiture to have taken place," Koku Anyidoho told Citi News. Below is the full story How Atta-Mills convinced Yao N�Dre- All you need to know about the role played by the Ghanaian president. Who would have believed it would be possible! Paul Yao N�Dre has sworn in Alassane Ouattara as the president of the Republic of Cote d�Ivoire. To many people it was a utopia, a dream that would never materialize. In fact until the Constitutional Court�s decision on 5th May 2011, at its headquarters at Cocody, many were those who were ready to bet their last penny that Paul Yao N�Dre would never go back on his vow (he had declared Laurent Gbagbo as the president-elect on 4th December 2010). Today, we have realized how wrong that all those people are. But this did not come on a silver platter. It took secret negotiations for him to go back on his word! According to our insider sources, the Ghanaian president is behind the said decision; the fact the YAO N�DRE had to change his mind. After Laurent Gbagbo�s arrest, John Atta-Mills met with some close pals of the deposed Ivorian president present in Ghana. Led by Koulibaly Mamadou, the Ghanaian President explained to the bigwigs of the ex-Ivorian president, how important it was to adopt an appeasement approach. Not only did the Ghanaian head of state get in touch with Gbagbo�s camp but also liaised with the new Ivorian authorities. After a series of discussions with the two parties, they settled on a �gentleman�s agreement.� The following are some of the details of the said agreement: Alassane Ouatara must be sworn in by the Constitutional Court presided over by Paul Yao N�Dre and then in return for that gesture, the new Ivorian head of state must secure the release of all prisoners (including Gbagbo and his wife), the return of all in exile, cessation of all manner of witch-hunting being perpetrated against militants of the presidential majority and ensuring the return to normality. Our source did not indicate the date for the enforcement of these measures by the Ouattara camp. However, the same source disclosed that, Atta-Mills had to prevail on two major arguments to succeed in convincing the supporters of the former Ivorian president. One: he reminded them of the fact that Laurent Gbagbo had fallen. Two: he directed the Constitutional Court to base its actions on the conclusions of the High level Group of the African Union (AU) to declare Alassane Ouattara president of the Republic of Cote d�Ivoire. Atta Mills mediation has paid off.