Nigeria has granted asylum to Guinea-Bissau opposition leader Fernando Dias da Costa, who ran against ousted president Umaro Sissoco in last week’s elections, a foreign affairs official said Monday in Abuja.
The military took control of the coup-prone Portuguese-speaking nation on Wednesday — a day before the provisional results of national elections were due to be announced.
The powerful opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), said its headquarters had been “illegally invaded by heavily armed militia groups” in the capital Bissau following the coup.
The true motives for the coup in Guinea-Bissau remain unclear, with speculation in some quarters that it was carried out with Embalo’s blessing.
After having criticised the coup, a senior delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) travelled to Guinea-Bissau to meet the junta on Monday, and repeated their condemnation of the takeover.
Dias said he had escaped from his campaign headquarters on Wednesday when armed men came to arrest him.
According to a leaked letter by the Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar and cited by Nigerian media, Dias has been granted “protection and security” at the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.
“The decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria to grant asylum and provide protection to Mr. Fernando Dia Da Costa falls squarely within Nigeria’s sovereign responsibility and longstanding commitment to regional peace, stability, and democratic governance,” foreign minister’s spokesman Alkasim Abdulkadir, said in a text to AFP.
– ‘Regional stability’ –
“Acting in the broader interest of de-escalation, Nigeria exercised its lawful discretion to prevent further deterioration of tensions and to promote social cohesion in Guinea-Bissau and the wider West African sub-region.
He said the decision to intervene was “guided solely by the imperatives of peace, human security, and regional stability, in line with ECOWAS principles and Nigeria’s historic role as a stabilising force in West Africa”.
Since the takeover, ECOWAS suspended Guinea-Bissau from the west African bloc.
After Monday’s talks with the junta, Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba told the press that while the discussions were “productive”, “both parties expressed their concerns”.
The opposition and some experts have suggested that Embalo, in power since 2020, orchestrated the takeover to halt the electoral process.
Opposition leader Dias last week told AFP he believed he had won the November 23 election and alleged Embalo — who has also claimed victory — had “organised” the power grab to prevent him from taking office.
Embalo was also briefly arrested on Wednesday.
But he was allowed on Thursday to leave for neighbouring Senegal, from where moved on to the Republic of Congo’s capital Brazzaville at the weekend.
Embalo, 53, is rumoured to be close to Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso.
