By Chimezie Godfrey
The West Africa Media Lawyers (WAMELA) has joined the rest of the world to condemn the military coup in Guinea.
In a statement signed by the
International President (WAMELA), Noah Ajare, the group stressed that every accession to power should be through free, fair, and transparent elections.
Consequently, the group called on the Nigerian government and all governments of the ECOWAS states to take all necessary steps to resist the renegade military leaders of Guinea.
They also stressed that the disgruntled Guinean military leaders who are behind the recent coup should be held accountable and punished under the present international criminal regime.
The Group stated,”The 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 office.
“Consequent upon the provisions of the above referred Protocol, we hereby call on (the Nigerian) all Government’s of the ECOWAS States to take all such necessary steps to resist the renegade military leaders of Guinea.
They urged that 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,” they stated.
WAMELA further called 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.
