Release ousted president, Nigeria tells Mauritanias junta

NIGERIA has asked the military authorities in Mauritania to immediately release former President Sidi Mohamed Sheik Abdullahi, who was recently overthrown in a coup and placed in detention.

Nigerias position, according to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Tijani Kaura, is in line with internationally accepted principles of fairness and the rule of law.

Mauritania pulled out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 1999 ostensibly on the prodding of the Arab-Maghreb Union. Although a comeback is being considered, it is still the only country in the sub-region that does not enjoy membership and solidarity in the regional economic bloc.

Kaura said in Abuja when he was visited by the countrys Ambassador to Nigeria, Ahmedou Ould Mohamedou that drawing strength from her past military experience, Nigeria was in a prime position to guide fellow African states which are in the process of navigating themselves away from instability.

The minister told his visitor that President Umaru YarAdua stood for the rule of law and as such would not support a change of government without going through a natural democratic process.

He also described the pronouncement by the Military Government in Mauritania to return to democracy as soon as possible as ambiguous, and therefore called on the junta to immediately announce its time-table for the return to democracy to the whole world.

In his defence of the situation in his country, the visiting ambassador said that his country did not regard the recent change of government as a coup because there was no bloodshed while recent change of government was considered as a corrective measure to right the wrongs perpetrated during the tenure of the last President.

But while reacting to this claim, Kaura said: A coup is a coup, whether bloody or bloodless, once there is a change of government without going through voting process.

In a statement on the closed door meeting by the ministers press secretary Boade Akinola, the minister stated that even if there were wrongdoings by government, there is constitutional process for handling such issues.

He charged the Mauritanian authorities to realize that globally, democracy is the acceptable form of government, and thereby urged the country to follow internationally accepted norm and return to democracy forthwith.

He promised that Nigeria would be ready to assist the country in the process of returning to democratic rule.