Nigeria, Benin Republic, Niger, and Guinea Bissau have reiterated their dedication to a speedy transition to democracy in West African countries ruled by military governments.

Leaders from the three countries met with their Nigerian counterpart, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, and promised to re-engage the junta in the affected countries to guarantee a peaceful transition.

The affected countries are Burkina-Faso, Mali, and Gambia, where the military juntas have taken over the government.

The ugly development is seen by ECOWAS as a threat to the peace and stability of the sub-region.

The meeting and adoption of the decision of the 4 leaders, who called themselves Troika+, was aimed at ensuring the prevention of coup dètat on the continent.

The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Alhaji Umar Alieu, briefed newsmen on the main points of the meeting while saying that the leaders would set forth for the re-engagement anytime soon.

“The leaders have taken the decision to re-engage the three countries at the highest level. A member of the Troika, in the person of His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Benin, will undertake a mission to these three countries on behalf of the Heads of State. The transition must be in accordance with ECOWAS protocols and in accordance with their individual transition chatters”, he explained.

In respect to security, Alhaji Umar Alieu stressed that the leaders had committed to give a vigorous regional reaction to any threats to peace.

“The regional response shall include the operationalisation of the ECOWAS Plan of Action, with region’s own troops and region’s own financing. The security response shall also include support to individual member-states of the region. The response shall also include the use of specific models of peace and security”, Alhaji Omar Alieu added.

On his part, President Bola Tinubu said member-states could raise funds towards attaining security in the West African sub-region.

“We have no problem raising funds, and we have all the instrumentalities to do that, so concerning our design and engineering of our finances, we believe we’re capable of raising necessary funds to combat terrorism and insecurity in the region”, the President assured.