The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said that the only acceptable way of changing government in West Africa remains election.

Osinbajo stated that no excuse justifies a change of government by coup d’etat.

The Vice President added that as far as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is concerned, the only one way of changing government in the region, which is acceptable to all of the protocols, is by a democratically elected government.

Osinbajo spoke to newsmen on Thursday after attending the ECOWAS Extraordinary Summit on the political situations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea in Accra, Ghana.

Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the Summit, stated that ECOWAS condemned the attempted coup in Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau, while the West African leaders were expecting the Malian authorities to respond to the sanctions imposed on the country.

He said: “I think it has been fruitful, the Heads of State again reiterated the firm position that had been taken earlier that there is absolutely no excuse for a change of government by coup d’etat.

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“So, what happened in Burkina Faso was considered and has been condemned by all of the Heads of State and we do not think there is any excuse for it whatsoever.

“But at the moment, of course, engagement is going on with the military junta and also we condemned the attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau and congratulated President Embalo and the people of Guinea-Bissau for resisting that unconstitutional attempt to change the government.

“All in all it has been fruitful and we are very hopeful that lessons had been learnt and we will not see a repeat of this.”

When asked about Mali, Osinbajo, who returned to Abuja on Thursday evening, said: “We are expecting that the Malian authorities would respond to ECOWAS imposed sanctions as you know and we expect that at some point, the Malian authorities themselves would begin to speed up the process of transition. We expect that they would do so. We are looking forward to that engagement.”

TheStar