Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Akufo-Addo will on Thursday, September 16, 2021, convene an Extraordinary Summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government to brainstorm over the political situation in the Republic of Guinea.
Addressing an emergency press conference to announce the summit, Ghana’s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botcway said “It will be recalled that Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, Leader of the Special Forces Group, ousted President Alpha Conde in a successful coup d’etat staged in Conakry, Guinea on Sunday September 5, 2021”.
She said following this incident, the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS convened an Extraordinary Session via videoconference on September 8, 2021, under the Chairmanship of President Akufo-Addo, to review the political situation in Guinea as well as the political transition in Mali.
This the Authority decided, among others, to immediately dispatch a high-level ECOWAS mission to Guinea to assess the situation on the ground.
She noted that the summit is to provide the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government with an account of their visit to the West African state and deliberate on the way forward.
She said the summit is being held to enable the high-level mission report to the Authority after which the latter will deliberate and consider the next steps to be taken towards the restoration of the country to the path of democratic governance and constitutional rule
“The summit will, therefore, have a single agenda where I will lay before the Authority the report of the ECOWAS High-Level Mission to Guinea, which was undertaken on Friday, 10th September 2021,” she added.
It is expected that seven (7) Heads of State and Government will attend the summit as confirmed by the minister.
“Nigeria will be represented at the level of the Vice-President; Sierra Leone and The Gambia will be represented by their Foreign Affairs Ministers and President and Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission will be in attendance”.
Meanwhile, as part of security arrangements and movement of the participating Heads of State, Police have announced that there will be disruptions in flow of vehicular traffic on some ceremonial roads.
The roads that will be affected include the Opeibea route along the Liberation Road through to the Independence Avenue to the National Theater and onto the Gamel Abdul Nasser Avenue to the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel, the venue for the summit.
The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Supt. Alexander Kwaku Obeng has assured of Police presence on the listed roads to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and assist motorists on roads that would be used by the dignitaries.
