Daily Trust (Abuja)
Abdulfattah Olajide
21 October 2009
Abuja — The Republic of Niger was yesterday suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sequel to President Mamadou Tandja's rebuff of the regional body's earlier directive that the country's controversial general elections held yesterday be postponed indefinitely.
A statement issued by Mr. Segun Adeniyi,the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Umaru Musa Yar'adua who is ECOWAS chairman, said the regional body would not recognize the results of the Nigerien elections, insisting that President Tandja violated his country's 1999 Constitution and ECOWAS' Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance by holding the election. ECOWAS said the breaches constitute sufficient grounds for the imposition of sanctions on Niger in accordance with Article 45 of the said Protocol.
However, in a swift reaction to the suspension, the Nigerien Minister of Information, Mr Kassoum Moctar said ECOWAS' sanctions would not affect his country negatively.
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