By Bashir Aliyu
Economic Community of West African State, ECOWAS may lift sanctions on Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger following calls by prominent figures that the community should suspend sanctions imposed on the country in a bid to prevent the withdrawal of the three countries after military juntas seized power which led to the economic sanctions and halt in multi-national efforts to fight terrorism in the region.
This was as President Bola Tinubu, who serves as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of States, hosts his counterparts at an extraordinary meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, Saturday morning.
However, the military-led juntas of Burkina-Faso, Mali and Niger, in late January, announced their withdrawal over “illegal sanctions” harming their people.
They also alleged that the bloc had fallen under the influence of foreign governments whose interests, they said were far from the peoples’.
Daily Review gathers that a presidential source in Abuja said, “ECOWAS is likely to lift the sanctions against those three states. For the sake of brotherhood, they don’t want them to go.
“That is why recently, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), a founding member, has been intervening. He pleaded that something should be done immediately.”
Another source who spoke under anonymity said, “At tomorrow’s meeting, they are going to lift the sanctions and suspension and ask them to return to the fold. They are our brothers. It is the coup that has put us asunder. If you check what the President said in Addis Ababa, you will get where this is coming from.”
