The Gambian leader has stressed that the military junta in Guinea Bissau that seized power on April 12 and aborted a presidential run-off election “will not have what they want by getting away with things with impunity”.

His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh, who participated in Thursday’s Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) on Guinea Bissau and Mali in Dakar, Senegal, was speaking to reporters in a brief interview at the Banjul International Airport shortly after his arrival from the Summit.

The Dakar Summit is coming four days after the sub-regional bloc slapped the former West African Portuguese colony with sanctions following the adamant move by the Bissau Junta to reject all the demands tabled before them by Ecowas through its Contact Group of seven countries that met in Banjul under the chair of President Jammeh, who sat in for his Nigerian counterpart, Goodluck Jonathan. But the Gambian leader was very clear on Thursday, stressing that sector reforms that have been resisting is going to be enforced to the letter in Bissau.

His words: “This is not only an Ecowas endeavour but we reserve the right to invite the international community including the United Nations, the African Union, and of course other institutions like the CPLP [Community of Portuguese Language Countries]. It is a broad-based action that is going to be taken in the event that they refuse to accept Ecowas resolution; we will use force.”

President Jammeh also informed that decisions taken in Banjul by the Contact Group on Guinea Bissau have been enforced and endorsed by the Ecowas Heads of state, as well as that of Mali.

“I went to make sure that the issues we have taken in Banjul are not altered. So the decision that was communicated in Banjul was enforced and endorsed by the Heads of State and so that stands – that is with regards to Guinea Bissau. We were not part of the negotiation committee for Mali, but also what was decided earlier on has also been endorsed by everybody. So we want to see what is going to happen next,” he explained.

Reiterating that the decision taken in Banjul was confirmed by the Heads of State, the Gambian leader stressed the junta have to hand over to a transitional government that will run the country for one year and then have elections.

He added: “Also, the Ecowas intervention force will be deployed to make sure that the transitional institutions are protected; the National Assembly will remain intact and will not be dissolved; and the National Assembly will makes rules and regulations and if there is any amendment to the constitution or any reform, the National Assembly will be asked to pass those requisite laws with regards to the electoral law if they want to change the constitution because nobody is going to enforce on them.”