FROM JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, ABUJA
President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his deep concern with the unfolding political situation in Guinea Bissau following the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Mr. Domingos Simoes Pereira and his cabinet by President Jose Mario Vaz.
He has therefore called for calm and appealed to the leadership in Guinea Bissau to exercise utmost restraint and ensure the maintenance of law and order as continued efforts are made to resolve the current crisis.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement said, President Buhari had in demonstration of true African solidarity and brotherhood, sent former President Olusegun Obasanjo as his Special Envoy to mediate and help find solution to the crisis brewing in Guinea Bissau.
“Chief Obasanjo embarked on the first leg of his mission by consulting with the current Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Macky Sall of Senegal in Dakar yesterday (Thursday).
“It is regrettable that while Chief Obasanjo was still consulting with President Sall, President Jose Mario Vaz of Guinea Bissau proceeded to appoint and swear-in a new Prime Minister in the person of Mr. Baciro Dja, a development that has worsened the political situation in his country.
“The President particularly urges the leadership in Guinea Bissau, including the military, to ensure respect for constitutional order, sanctity of life and safety of citizens, and avoid taking any further action that can threaten the fragile democratic institutions recently established in the country”, the statement read.