Richard Anyebe
The Niger military junta has disclosed when the regime will hand over power to the democratic administration.
In a late Saturday night broadcast on national television, the Head of the Military Council, Major-General Abdurouhamane Tchiani said the regime will hand over within three years.
According to Tchiani, who is the former head of the Presidential Guard to Bazoum, a committee will be set up within a month to formulate modalities for the drawing up of a new constitution.
The statement of the junta leader comes after he and his team met with the ECOWAS delegation headed by Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who also led an 11-month transition programme in 1998 and handed over to the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.
In the broadcast, the coup leader maintained that the country does not want to go to war, a last resort option that ECOWAS under President Bola Tinubu had threatened, but that the Niger Republic will defend itself if attacked.
Also, in the broadcast, no mention was made of the ousted and detained Bazoum, whom the Niger military junta said will be tried for treason, an offense with the death penalty, going by Nigerien laws.
Kanyi Daily recalls that the military junta seized power in a coup on July 26th, 2023, and immediately detained the country’s president, Mohamed Bazoum.
The regime has continued to hold onto power despite a series of sanctions against it by the West Africa regional bloc, ECOWAS in addition to condemnation of the coup by the UN, the EU, France, the United States, and other countries
