WEST Africa Media Lawyers (WAMELA) join all well-meaning individuals who believe in the principles of democracy together with all the progressive leaders of the West African sub-region and the entire world, to condemn the military coup in Guinea.
Article 1 (b) – (e) of the ECOWAS *Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance Supplementary to the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security* states as follows:
b. Every accession to power must be made through free, fair, and transparent elections.
c. Zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.
d. Popular participation in decision-making, strict adherence to democratic principles and decentralization of power at all levels of governance.
e. The armed forces must be apolitical and must be under the command of a legally constituted political authority; no serving member of the armed forces may seek to run for elective political.
Consequent upon the provisions of the above referred Protocol, we hereby call on the Nigerian Government to take all such necessary steps to resist the renegade military leaders of Guinea. The coup leader should be made to understand that military coups are totally unacceptable, especially in West Africa irrespective of the unpopularity of the sitting government of any country.
Although the Constitution of Guinea was amended in most irregular circumstance to accommodate 3rd term of President Conde but until the Constitution is set aside, it remains the Groundnorm
We make it clear that the disgruntled Guinean military leaders who are behind the recent coup that they will be held accountable and punished under the present international criminal regime for such egregious violations of the human rights of the Guinean people and that of President Alpha Conde, if ever such occurred during this misadventure of theirs against democracy.
WAMELA further calls for a serious, concerted resistance by the international community to the recent coup in Guinea to serve as a strong deterrence to all other armed forces, particularly in West Africa who may be tempted to consider seizing political power by any unconstitutional means because of the prevailing economic and security challenges facing the region.
Noah Ajare, ESQ
International President
West Africa Media Lawyers (WAMELA)
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