Nigeria has granted asylum to Guinea-Bissau’s presidential candidate, Fernando Dias da Costa, just days after a coup prevented the results of recent elections from being announced.
The 47-year-old man, candidate for the Party for Social Renewal, was under special protection at the Nigerian embassy, following “threats made against him”, said the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dias was the main challenger to Umaro Sissoco Embaló, who was seeking a second presidential term and left the country after the military seized power.
A delegation from the West African bloc ECOWAS visited the country, urging the military to stand down and publish the results of the vote.
But the electoral commission has now said it will not be able to publish the results because armed men wearing balaclavas destroyed the documents and the main computer server which stored results from different regions.
Embaló and Dias claimed victory in the November 23 presidential election.
The PAIGC party, the liberation movement that ended Portuguese colonial rule, was not allowed to present a candidate.
The coup took place three days after the vote. The military suspended the electoral process, blocked the publication of results and insisted it was acting to thwart a plot to destabilize the politically unstable country.
The junta also tightened restrictions in the country, banning all demonstrations and “all actions disturbing the peace and stability of the country”.
Tensions remain high in the capital, Bissau. The PAIGC said its headquarters had been “illegally invaded by heavily armed militias” following the coup.
Its leader, Domingos Pereira, was arrested the day of the coup, according to his family and party members.
Dias said he escaped from his campaign headquarters on the day of the coup as gunmen came to arrest him.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said President Bola Tinubu had agreed to grant protection to Dias inside the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.
“The decision to accommodate Mr. [Fernando Dias] Da Costa in the Nigerian premises underlines our strong commitment to safeguard the democratic aspirations and sovereign will of the good people of Guinea-Bissau,” Tuggar said in a letter addressed to the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Alieu Omar Touray.
The letter also requested that soldiers from an ECOWAS unit present in the country be deployed to the Nigerian embassy to provide security for Dias.
Meditation talks on Monday between the ECOWAS delegation, led by Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba, and the junta were heated.
Afterward, Kabba told reporters that the discussions had been “productive” but noted that “both sides have expressed concerns.”
The junta has already sworn in a new transitional leader, General Horta N’Tam, who will lead 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 official at the electoral commission, explained how his offices were attacked on the day of the coup.
“They confiscated the computers of the 45 staff members present at the commission that day,” he said in a statement.
Not only were the results destroyed, but election tally sheets from the two key regions being transferred to the capital were intercepted and confiscated by armed men, he added.
The true motivations for the coup in Guinea-Bissau remain unclear, while speculation suggests it may have been staged.
Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and former Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan have both said the coup was fabricated without providing evidence.
Some local civil society groups also accused Embaló of orchestrating a “simulated coup” against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to prevent the election results from being released in case he lost.
Embaló, who has previously been accused of using the crises to suppress dissent, has not responded to the coup allegations.
The 53-year-old was allowed to leave for neighboring Senegal on Thursday, from where he is believed to have traveled to Congo-Brazzaville this weekend.
Guinea-Bissau has experienced at least nine coups or attempted coups over the past five decades.
Located between Senegal and Guinea, it is known as a drug trafficking hub where the military has held influence since its independence from Portugal in 1974.
