Nigeria has granted asylum to Guinea-Bissau presidential candidate Fernando Dias da Costa just days after a coup prevented the results of recent elections from being announced.
The 47-year-old, who was running as a Social Renewal Party candidate, was receiving special protection at the Nigerian embassy after “threats were made” against him, Nigeria's foreign minister said.
Díaz was the main rival of Umaro Sissoko Embalo, who was running for a second term as president and fled the country after the military coup.
A delegation from the West African bloc Ecowas was in the country and called on the military to step aside and publish the results of the vote.
But now the election commission has said it will not be able to publish the results because balaclava-wearing gunmen destroyed documents and the main computer server where results from different regions were stored.
Both Embalo and Diaz declared victory in the November 23 presidential elections.
The PAIGC party, the liberation movement that ended Portuguese colonial rule, was prohibited from nominating a candidate.
The coup occurred three days after the vote. The military suspended the electoral process, blocked the release of results and said it was acting for the sake of foil a plot to destabilize a politically unstable country.
The junta also tightened restrictions in the country, banning all demonstrations and “all activities that disturb the peace and stability of the country.”
Tensions remain high in the capital Bissau. PAIGC said its headquarters had been “illegally invaded by heavily armed militia groups” since the coup.
Its leader, Domingos Pereira, was arrested on the day of the coup, family members and party members said.
Diaz said he fled his campaign headquarters on the day of the coup when armed men arrested him.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said President Bola Tinubu has agreed to provide Diaz with protection inside the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.
“The decision to place Mr. [Fernando Dias] da Costa on Nigerian premises underscores our strong commitment to defending the democratic aspirations and sovereign will of the good people of Guinea-Bissau,” Tuggar said in a letter to Ecowas Commission President Aliou Omar Turay.
The letter also requests that soldiers from the Ecowas unit stationed in the country be sent to the Nigerian Embassy to ensure Diaz's safety.
Monday's meditative talks between an Ecowas delegation led by Sierra Leone's Foreign Minister Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabbah and the junta were heated.
Kabbah told reporters afterward that the discussions had been “productive” but noted that “both sides have expressed their concerns.”
The junta has already sworn in a new transitional leader, General Horta N'Tham. who will rule the country for a year.
Ecowas leaders have suspended Guinea-Bissau from all decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored.
On Tuesday, Idrissa Djalo, a senior election commission official, explained how its offices were attacked on the day of the coup.
“They confiscated the computers of all 45 employees who were at the commission that day,” his statement said.
He added that not only were the results stored there destroyed, but election records from two key regions that were being transmitted to the capital were intercepted and confiscated by armed men.
The true motives for the coup in Guinea-Bissau remain unclear. amid speculation that this could have been staged.
Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and former Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan said the coup was a fabrication, without providing evidence.
Some local civil society groups also accused Embalo of staging a “fake coup” against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ploy to block the release of election results if he lost.
Embalo, who has previously been accused of using crises to suppress dissent, has not responded to accusations of a coup.
53 year old man on Thursday they were allowed to travel to neighboring Senegalfrom where he reportedly moved to Congo-Brazzaville over the weekend.
Over the past five decades, Guinea-Bissau has witnessed at least nine coups or attempted coups.
Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, it is known as a drug trafficking hub where the military has had influence since independence from Portugal in 1974.
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