….Begins Military Preparations.

By Kingsley Omonobi
The Committee of ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff may have been put on standby for a possible military intervention in Cote D’ Ivoire, as a last resort, if the President Laurent Gbagbo refuses to hand over power to Alhassan Quattara who was the victor in the last Ivorian elections.

Towards this end, the Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff, with Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin as Chairman, has began to put machinery in motion for the achievement of this aim with West African countries expected to contribute troops, logistics and other resources.

Confirming the development in Abuja yesterday, Director of Defence Information, Colonel Mohammed Yerima noted that the machinery were being put in place so that in the case of failure or refusal to abide by the wishes of ECOWAS through diplomatic channels, they would be left with no option other than to use force to dislodge Gbagbo.

“If all political and diplomatic avenues are exhausted and the situation remains the same and Gbagbo fails to leave office, ECOWAS will forcefully take over and hand over power to Alhassan Quattara who was legitimately and democratically elected by the people”, he said.

Emphasizing that ECOWAS was pursuing all diplomatic channels to ensure that the impasse is resolved peacefully, Yerima said, “If all the persuasion fails, ECOWAS through its Standby Force will remove Laurent Gbagbo forcefully”.

“But note that this will be a last resort because it is the hope of the heads of states of ECOWAS that Gbagbo will hand over power without military coercion”.

Explaining that another meeting of the Chiefs of Defence Staff of ECOWAS countries has been fixed for January 17th and 18th 2011 in Mali, to deliberate on the crises, the DDI said this will be coming after another delegation from ECOWAS led by the President of Cape Verde must have met and discuss with Gbagbo early in January of 2011.

While noting the meeting of the Committee of chiefs of Defence staff which held in Abuja on the 28th and 29th of December 2010, was at the instance of the heads of states of the sub region, Col. Yerima said, “ECOWAS is very hopeful that the power tussle will be resolved before then and that there will be no need for military action”.

Those who attended the meeting were Chiefs of Defence Staff from Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Nigeria.