ECOWAS leaders to meet Gambia's Jammeh Wednesday

By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will on Wednesday lead regional leaders to another meeting with the Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh in a "final effort" to resolve the political logjam in the tiny West African nation.

“The Gambian political crisis will be resolved in manner that conforms to the constitution and respects the people's will,” Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told reporters in the Nigerian capital Abuja after a meeting of Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders.

The meeting was chaired by Buhari -- recently appointed the chief mediator in the crisis -- and attended by Senegalese leader Macky Sall, Liberian leader EllenJohnson Sirleaf and former Ghanian President John Mahama.

Onyeama also said the ECOWAS leaders expressed deep concern about the “deteriorating Gambia situation, especially closure of media organizations, arrests, and a looming refugee situation”.

The Abuja meeting was the third in about three weeks, and came just a day after the one held on the sidelines of the inauguration of Ghana’s new leader Nana Akufo-Addo in the capital Accra.

The regional leaders are to mount pressure on Jammeh, defeated in the recent election, to quit office by Jan. 19 when his term expires.

Gambia’s Jammeh rejected the election results last month, a week after conceding defeat to a little known property developer, Adama Barrow.