The general who overthrew President Ali Bongo Ondimba in Gabon two days ago promised Friday “more democratic” institutions that respect “human rights”, but without “rushing”.
General Brice Oligui Nguema also targeted “the corruption” of the former power of Mr. Bongo, whose family had ruled this small oil-rich Central African state for more than 55 years.
During meetings conducted at a frantic pace with “the living forces of the Nation”, parties, the diplomatic corps, international organizations and donors, he insisted on the fact that he wanted to reassure inside as outside the country.
But in promising a new Constitution and electoral code, Gabon’s new strongman, who is due to be sworn in as ‘Transitional President’ on Monday, shut the door on the main old opposition parties who were urging him to return power to civilians by entrusting it to Albert Ondo Ossa, who came second in the presidential election of August 26, which she considers fraudulent.
The army says it carried out its putsch on Wednesday because the results proclaiming Mr Bongo re-elected had been rigged and his regime was marked by “irresponsible and unpredictable governance” as well as corruption.
The general had invited the diplomatic corps and international organizations on Friday, but the countries, Western and African in particular, which had condemned the coup d’etat did not dispatch their ambassadors but lower-ranking diplomats, testified for AFP of the attendees.
The activities of some 400 French soldiers, permanently stationed in Gabon, as part of bilateral military cooperation, have been suspended “while waiting for the political situation to become clearer”, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu said in an interview. to the French newspaper Le Figaro published on Friday evening.
Mr. Lecornu made a point of differentiating between the coups in Gabon and in Niger.
“France condemns all acts of force (…) However, we cannot equate the situation in Niger, where illegitimate soldiers have deposed a legitimately elected president, and that of Gabon, where the motive advanced by the military is precisely the non-respect of the electoral law and the Constitution. Because in fact, and, I am weighing my words, there are doubts about the sincerity of the elections in this country”, underlined the French minister.
The leader of the putsch affirmed that the dissolution of the institutions was “temporary”, ensuring that it was a question of making “more democratic tools”, in particular in “matter of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law but also the fight against corruption which has become commonplace in our country”.
In front of civil society, General Oligui, head of the all-powerful praetorian guard of the Bongo family, then promised a new Constitution and a new electoral code, but without “confusing speed with haste”. “Who goes slowly, goes surely,” he said.
Mr. Bongo has been under house arrest in Libreville since the coup. Sylvia Bongo, his Franco-Gabonese wife, is also being held incommunicado, his lawyers said on Friday, announcing that they had filed a complaint in France for arbitrary detention.
During a speech on Thursday but broadcast on Friday by state television, General Oligui lectured more than 200 Gabonese business leaders, accusing some of having participated in corruption.
He threatened them with legal action, accusing many of them of having fueled corruption at the top of power.
With a dark look, he reproached them for a lack of “patriotism”, summoned them to “question themselves” and to “stop” the widespread practice of “overbilling” in contracts with the State, giving rise to kickbacks to senior officials.
At the same time, public television broadcast images of one of the sons of the deposed president, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and other young people close to him “and to the First Lady” – senior officials in Mr. Bongo’s cabinet , all arrested on the day of the putsch.
They were shown in front of trunks, boxes and bags overflowing with bundles of banknotes for “billions of CFA francs” (millions of euros).
The putschists accuse them – Noureddin Bongo included – of “high treason”, “massive embezzlement of public funds” and “falsification of the signature” of the head of state.
In Paris on Friday, the lawyers of the former First Lady Sylvia Bongo filed a complaint for “arbitrary detention” with another of her sons, Jalil.
“She is being held in an undetermined place in Gabon,” assured AFP in Paris Me François Zimeray. The lawyers “require” authorization for “visits” by members of the Consulate General of France in Libreville.
Ali Bongo was elected in 2009 on the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled the country for more than 41 years and was one of the pillars of “Françafrique”, then re-elected with difficulty in 2016, in a ballot that the opposition already denounced as rigged.
02/09/2023 05:01:17 – Libreville (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
