Today's Headlines:Meet Gabon’s Coup Leader Brice Nguema;Wike Dares PDP, says Nobody Can Expel Me
Meet Gabon’s Coup leader Brice Nguema
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The alleged coup leader in Gabon, Brice Oligui Nguema, heads the Gabonese Presidency’s Republican Guard, the country’s most powerful security unit.
Minutes after Gabon’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office, senior military officers announced a coup and annulled the election results.
According to local media reports, Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema, the commander-in-chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard – the country’s most powerful security unit – and a cousin to Bongo, is the ringleader of the attempted coup.
Here are things to know about Nguema:
Nguema is one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in the country today. The son of a military officer, he trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
Nguema then served as Bongo’s “aides-de-camp” to a commander in former President Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard, until the former Gabonese leader’s death in 2009.
Wike Dare PDP, says Nobody Can Expel Me
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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has dared his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, to expel him.
Speaking on the possibility of getting expelled from the PDP for anti-party activities, Wike dared those contemplating the move saying, “Nobody can expel me.”
Wike stated this Wednesday evening when he featured on Channels Television’s programme, “Politics Today.”
The immediate-past governor of Rivers State stressed that he had yet to see any leader in the PDP who had the authority to expel him from the party.
The person who will suspend me is when I couldn’t produce a governor, three senators, Assembly members. I have not seen that person. Nobody will do it,” Wike said.
“Who will discipline me? I should be the one calling for the discipline of these people who violated the party constitution,” the minister added.
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Subsidy Removal will End fuel scarcity_ Petrocam Boss
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The Chief Executive Officer of Petrocam Trading Nigeria Limited, Patrick Ilo, has expressed confidence that the removal of petrol subsidies would permanently solve the fuel scarcity challenges in the country.
While speaking at the opening of the company’s new head office in Lagos recently, Ilo said the subsidy removal, which was announced by the Nigerian government in May, had allowed market forces to determine the price of the commodity.
He noted that the government’s decision to deregulate the downstream sector of the industry was a bold move and in line with the company’s long-standing position.
“President Bola Tinubu was conscious about deregulation. There are problems, but problems are meant to be solved; we will surmount the problems and over time they will be over. I can guarantee that there will be no fuel scarcity in Nigeria with deregulation,” he said.
UN, Commonwealth, Others Condemn coup, Tinubu Warns Of spread
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President Bola Tinubu has expressed concern over the rising cases of coups in African countries, calling for a comprehensive consensus against the spread of “contagious autocracy” across the continent.
The President said he was committed to working with other African leaders to defend democracy on the continent.
Tinubu stated this in his first response to the Wednesday morning coup in Gabon, just as the United States, United Nations, European Union, France and the Commonwealth voiced concerns over the political development in the Central African country.
The military takeover in Gabon is coming one month after a similar incident happened in Niger where Presidential Guards overthrew the democratically elected President, Mohamed Bazoum.
A dozen soldiers had appeared on Gabonese national television, announcing the cancellation of election results said to have been won by incumbent Ondimba Ali Bongo and the dissolution of “all the institutions of the republic.”
The mutineers led by the head of the republican guards, Gen Brice Nguema , also closed the borders until further notice.
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