A delegation from ECOWAS made up of representatives from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau was on Saturday night held hostage in Burkina Faso during a meeting in the country’s capital Ouagadougou.
A member of the delegation who called into the GHone Newsroom during the attack said their captors were forcing them to sign a newly drafted constitution for the ECOWAS tourism subsector which they could not interpret because it was in French.
The source said they believe the owner of the Pacific hotel where they were held and the former chairman of the Ad Hoc committee, Pierre Zungrana, who was also a representative for Burkina Faso, instructed security at the hotel to lock them until they signed to accept the new constitution.
Starr News sources say ambassadors from all the member states whose representatives were held hostage stormed the hotel to demand the release of their citizens but were fiercely resisted by the representatives from the francophone countries, insisting the Chairperson from Ghana sign the document.
The representatives from 12 ECOWAS States out of 16 were in attendance, leaving out Liberia, Cape Verde, Mauritania and The Gambia whose officials did not receive invitations to attend.
The signing of the constitution was resisted by the Anglophone countries and the current interim Chairman of the Ad Hoc committee, from Ghana, who had assumed the interim position, to oversee the adoption of a constitution and election of executives.
Representatives from the Anglophone countries indicate the resistance to the adoption of the constitution was due to their inability to comprehend its contents, and unresolved issues pertaining to proposed legal frameworks.
The election of executives was also resisted because, according to sources, only 9 out of the 12 member states were present, where at least 10, representing two-thirds of the body were needed for an election to hold. Reports say four other countries had left due to the chaotic scenes during the meeting.
The representatives who were held hostage for 9 hours were eventually rescued by the police.
The matter has been escalated to ECOWAS authorities for action.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Daniel Sena Affadu-Danful
