President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to implement a set of new financial sanctions against the Niger Republic’s junta as well as their associates.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, said this during a briefing at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

He said: “Following the expiration of the deadline of the ultimatum and standing on the pre-existing consensus position of financial sanctions meted out on the military junta in Niger Republic by the bloc of ECOWAS Heads of State, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered an additional slew of financial sanctions, through the CBN, on entities and individuals related to or involved with the military junta in Niger Republic.”

The President’s spokesman maintained that they are being instituted under the authority of the ECOWAS.

Nigeria has already cut off electricity transmission to its northern neighbours to pressurise the military to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Ngelale added: “Concerning the ultimatum given to the military Junta in the Niger Republic, it is not a Nigerian mandate.

“The Office of President Tinubu, who is the chairman of ECOWAS, seeks to emphasise this point due to certain domestic and international media coverage tending toward personalisation of the ECOWAS sub-regional position to his person and to our nation individually.

“It is because of this that Mr. President has deemed it necessary to state unequivocally that the mandate and ultimatum were issued by ECOWAS.

“President Tinubu wishes to emphasise that the response of ECOWAS to the military coup in Niger has been and will remain devoid of ethnic and religious sentiments and considerations.

“The regional bloc is made up of all sub-regional ethnic groups, religious groups, and all other forms of human diversity. 

“The response of ECOWAS, therefore, represents all of these groups, and not any of these groups individually.”

Ngelale stressed that tomorrow’s extraordinary summit of ECOWAS will come up with far-reaching decisions on the developments in the Niger Republic.

Junta rejects visit by ECOWAS, UN, AU, U.S. delegations

The Niger coup leaders vowed to resist external pressure to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum after ECOWAS imposed sanctions and Western allies suspended aid.

The junta informed ECOWAS that it cannot host a delegation from the West African regional bloc.

“The current context of anger and revolt among the population following the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS makes it impossible to welcome this delegation in the required serenity and security,” Niger’s Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote in a letter addressed to the ECOWAS representation in Niamey.

On Monday, acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with the coup leaders and said they refused to allow her to meet with ousted President Bazoum, whom she described as under “virtual house arrest.” 

She described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to her appeals to start negotiations and restore constitutional rule.

Police at alert to avert internal security crisis, says IGP

 The Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Olukayode Egbetokun yesterday directed Assistants Inspector General (AIGs) of Police and Commissioners of Police (CPs) in charge of the border to be alert to avert internal security crisis following the Niger coup saga.

Egbetokun disclosed this during a meeting with top police officers in Abuja. 

He said the deployment of police officers would be done if need be alongside other security operatives.

The police boss said: “I have directed that CP of commands and AIGs, who are in charge of those border states with neighbouring countries, are to work in collaboration with our sister agencies, especially Customs to ensure that there are no internal security issues with respect to what is happening with our neighbours.”

ACF asks FG to lift economic sanctions against Niger

 The mouthpiece of Northern Nigeria, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), called on President Tinubu and ECOWAS to lift sanctions against the Niger Republic and adopt more dialogue with the military junta to prevent a further breakdown of talks.

ACF, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, said though the group condemns the coup and demands that the personal safety of President Bazoum and members of his government be guaranteed by the coup leaders, it feels dialogue, not military action is the way out.

This, he said, is to avoid a catastrophic occurrence of events between the two nations and the West African sub-region.

Coup plotters name economist as new prime minister

 Nearly two weeks after the military took over power in the country, the coup plotters have named former economy minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the country’s new prime minister.

A spokesman for the military junta made the announcement on television late on Monday night.

Lamine Zeine was formerly the minister of economy and finance for several years in the cabinet of then-president Mamadou Tandja, who was ousted in 2010, and most recently worked as an economist for the African Development Bank in Chad, according to a Nigerien media report.