Nigeria’s President, Muhammed Buhari is hosting this years’ West African Leaders Meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The ECOWAS meeting has in attendance, the President of Liberia, Madam Ellen Sheleaf Johnson; Ghana’s John Mahama and the President of Senegal, Macky Sall.

The leaders would be discussing the Gambian presidential election outcome, where President Yahya Jammeh is refusing to step aside after losing an election.

President Buhari is the chairman of the mediation team to Gambia.

A spokesman for the Nigerian presidency, Mr Garba Shehu, said on Friday that President Buhari, as “the chief mediator of the crisis” is committed to “ensuring that the logjam is resolved.”

A major decision on the impasse was expected to be taken at a meeting held in Ghana on Saturday on the sidelines of the inauguration of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Jammeh initially accepted his loss in the December 1 election, shocking Gambians who have lived through his rule since he took power in a 1994 coup, and triggering celebrations in the streets.

But a week later he changed his mind, saying the electoral commission had been biased by “foreign influences” and vowing to hang on despite regional and international condemnation.

Jammed says ECOWAS has no right to interfere in Gambia’s internal affairs, and that Gambians should await the outcome of a legal challenge that his APRC party has lodged at the Supreme Court. (Channels TV)

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