President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Thursday condemned in strong terms reports that Malian rebel soldiers had taken over control of the country from the democratically-elected government of President Amadou Toumani Toure.
The President who expressed displeasure and dismay over the action of the renegade troops, described the move as “an apparent setback to the consolidation of democracy in Mali in particular and the African continent in general.”
He warned the coup plotters to allow the ongoing democratic process in the country to run its full course and not to do anything that would truncate the electoral process especially the presidential election slated for next month. President Jonathan who also cautioned against the shedding of innocent blood and unnecessary destruction of property of the citizens and foreigners resident in Mali, stressed that the coup plotters have only embarked on a fruitless mission of supplanting a constitutional government by other means which goes against the current global grain of constitutionalism.
Emphasising that the Nigerian Government would never recognize any unconstitutional regime, the President further urged all well-meaning governments in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to roundly condemn the obvious coup d’état in Bamako and demand an immediate reinstatement of the government of President Toure and the continuation of the current electoral process.
