Tinubu meets governors of states that share boundaries with Niger Republic

President Bola Tinubu has met with governors from five northern states that share boundaries with Niger Republic.

The governors representing Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Yobe, and Katsina States, Umar Namadi, Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, Mohammed Nasir Idris, Mai Mala Buni, and Dikko Umar Radda respectively, met with Tinubu at the State House in Abuja on Sunday, August 6, 2023.

The meeting comes on the day the ultimatum issued to coup leaders in the Niger Republic by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expired.

Emerging from an extraordinary meeting in Abuja on July 30, 2023, the sub-regional body resolved to impose a wide range of sanctions on the Niger Republic to force a return to constitutional order in the country.

Above all, ECOWAS gave the putschists a seven-day ultimatum to release and reinstate the deposed democratically elected president of the country, Mohamed Bazoum, or face possible military intervention by the West African regional bloc.

But, the Nigerian senate and other stakeholders have cautioned Tinubu, who also doubles as the Chairman of ECOWAS, to jettison any plan to militarily invade the neighbouring country.

Meanwhile, according to a post on his Twitter page on Sunday evening, presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed that Tinubu met the five governors as part of wider consultations on the situation in Niger Republic.

"H.E. President @officialABAT on Sunday evening met with Governors of States that share boundaries with Niger Republic at the State House in Abuja. The meeting was part of wider consultations by the President on the situation in Niger.

"Sokoto, Kebbi, Yobe, Katsina & Jigawa Govs.," Ngelale's tweet read.