President Bola Tinubu has directed the acting governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to slam additional financial sanctions on Niger Republic.
Announcing this to State House correspondents on Tuesday, the president’s special adviser on media and publicity, Anjuri Ngelare, said the sanctions will specifically target the military junta, as well as entities and individuals associated with the coup.
“I can also report that following the expiration of the deadline of the ultimatum and standing on the preexisting consensus position of financial sanctions meted out on the military junta in Niger Republic by the bloc of ECOWAS Heads of State, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered an additional slew of financial sanctions through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on entities and individuals related to or involved with the military junta in Niger Republic,” Ngelare said.
He clarified that the decision of the regional bloc, ECOWAS, on the Niger situation was not a personal decision of President Tinubu or that of Nigeria against Niger.
Ngelare added that further persuasions and dialogue with Niger would be initiated, just as further actions and a consensus position on the next line of action would be taken during the extraordinary summit of ECOWAS in Abuja on Thursday.
“Concerning the ultimatum given to the military Junta in Niger Republic, The ECOWAS mandate, and ultimatum is not a Nigerian ultimatum,” he buttressed.
“It is not a Nigerian mandate and the office of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, also serving as the chairman of ECOWAS seeks to emphasize this point: that due to certain domestic and international media coverage, tending toward personalization 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 issued by ECOWAS is that of ECOWAS’s position.
“While His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assumed the ECOWAS chairmanship, the position of ECOWAS conveys the consensus position of member heads of state.
“And a coup will not occur in one's backyard, without one being particularly aware of it.”
