LAGOS - Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo cancelled a crisis visit to Togo and warned of sanctions against its controversial new regime on Friday after Togolese authorities refused to allow a plane carrying his advance party to land, the Nigerian leader’s spokeswoman said.
Obasanjo had been due to meet fellow leaders from the ECOWAS bloc in Cotonou, the commercial capital of Benin, later in the day before flying on to Lome to warn President Faure Gnassingbe that west Africa would not accept this week’s “military coup” which brought him to power.
But Nigerian spokeswoman Remi Oyo told AFP that Obasanjo had cancelled his plan to join the other leaders -- the presidents of Niger, Ghana and Mali and the executive secretary of ECOWAS -- and had asked them to consider calling for international sanctions against Togo.
Nigeria has recalled its ambassador from Togo, she said.
“The authorities in Togo are frustrating efforts by ECOWAS to resolve the crisis in the country,” she said. “On Thursday evening the plane carrying the advance team of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was refused landing in Lome.
“As a result of this unfriendly and hostile action, President Obasanjo has advised the executive secretary of ECOWAS, Mr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, of his decision not to participate in the delegation of leaders who were supposed to visit Togo’s president,” she added.
“So the latest Togolese actions might compel the full commencement of sanctions,” she warned.
Faure Gnassingbe was installed in power by Togo’s military on Saturday after his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, died following 38-years of iron-fisted rule in the small west African republic. The unconstitutional power-shift was rubber stamped by the Togolese parliament, but has attracted worldwide condemnation.
On Thursday west African leaders meeting in Niamey condemned the ”illegal coup” and warned Togo that it could expect to face international economic sanctions if it did not renounce the hand-over and move quickly to organise elections and restore constitutional rule.
The delegation of presidents was to have conveyed that message to Gnassingbe on Friday. “The summit has condemned the coup in Togo that followed the death of President Gnassingbe Eyadema,” Oyo said.
“It also expressed its displeasure at the unconstitutional actions that led to the installation of Faure Gnassingbe, the son of the late president. The summit warned that unless the Togolese authorities returned to the status quo ante (the pre-coup situation) sanctions would be imposed,” she said.
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