AFBA Calls On ECOWAS, EU To Impose Sanction To Ensure Speedy Recovery In Guinea

LAGOS – The African Bar Association (AFBA) has called on the ECOWAS and the AU to take more decisive steps in condemning the Coup in Guinea and must also impose the necessary Sanctions including a total blockage of economic and diplomatic access by the Coupists to ensure a speedy restoration of democracy in Guinea.

The AFBA in a statement signed by its president Hannibal Uwaifo said the group has learned with deep concern, reports that the Military in the Republic of Conakry Guinea has seized State Power, and has subsequently arrested and detained President Alpha Conde, the democratically elected President.

He said: “We find the situation in Guinea as very worrying, and note the fears about the Safety of Civilians, mainly ordinary Guineans who are already victims, and have been bearing the brunt of the dismal Economic Policies, characterized by mismanaged, broad day Robbery, Theft, and institutional graft under President Alpha Conde.

“While it is true that President Alpha Conde for his own selfish gains deliberately violated the Guinean Constitution by running for an illegal and controversial Third Presidential Term in Office, notwithstanding, his illegal undemocratic removal by Force of Arms, is certainly irresponsible and totally unacceptable.

“As the Fearless voice of the African Legal Community, the Africa Bar Association believes that the “lesser of the two evils” between President Conde and the Illegal Military dictatorship of the new Power Usurpers is clearly the choice of Democracy by the Guinean People as the current action by a few unelected ill-equipped Military Officers places the Guinean democracy at risk and in a precarious situation where they have nowhere to turn for respite, and the fact that Guinea cannot be peaceful in the circumstance.

“We note with total doubt the utterances and empty promises of these usurpers but categorically state without fear of contradiction the ability of the Military to effectively govern and lead by good examples. The African Bar Association refuses to believe in the commitment to return the Country to Democratic Civilian rule as outlandish, a ruse and therefore calls on the military junta regime to immediately relinquish the reins of State Power, give democracy a chance and allow the Guinean People to deal with the vices created by President Alpha Conde.

The situation in Guinea is a replay of the past Coup d’états in Africa in the 1970s where men in uniforms purporting to be “redeemers” of the masses, soon became the looters of national coffers, and lacking any ingenuity to defend their excesses, ended up maiming, pillaging and terrorizing their own people.

“For the African Bar Association, the recent Military Coups in Mali and now Guinea is a stark reminder that those who instigated the Military to intervene in Politics in Africa are again reinventing their old tricks to destabilize the Continent for their own selfish interests.

We call on ECOWAS and the AU to take more decisive steps not just by openly condemning the Coup but must impose the necessary Sanctions including a total blockage of economic and diplomatic access by the Coupists to ensure a speedy restoration of democracy in Guinea.

Meanwhile, the African Bar Association hereby call on 5th September, 2021 Coup Leaders and the supporters to relinquish Power unconditionally to create the necessary conducive Political environment for constitutional rule,” the statement reads.