Guinea’s Deposed Leader Is Still In Shock …Ayorkor Botchwey

Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has reported that deposed Guinean President, Alpha Conde, is still struggling to come to terms with the reality that he has been toppled.

Ms. Botchway made the revelation after she led an ECOWAS delegation to Guinea to assess the situation.

“Physically, he looks very well; we even talked to his doctor, who ascertained that indeed physically, he’s very well. But for anybody who has gone through such a traumatic experience like he did, mentally, it’s not the best, not to say that mentally we found anything wrong, but he was quite shocked; he’s still in a state of shock,” she said.

Conde’s government was toppled by a group of mutinous soldiers led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.

The coupists have since suspended the constitution and dissolved the government.

While President Alpha Conde has since been in detention with many fearing he may be mistreated. Ayorkor Botchwey allays those fears saying he is physically very well.

According to her, however, the coup leaders outlined many conditions to release the deposed President and relinquish power for a civilian-led transition.

“Conditions under which he’d be released, that I, at the moment cannot talk about, the heads of state sent us on a mission, we will present the report to them tomorrow. Indeed, they did put to us, a number of conditions under which they’d be released, but it’d not be proper to put that out now,” Botchwey stated.

A report is to be presented to the ECOWAS Heads of State at the extraordinary summit.

Meanwhile, she said seven ECOWAS Heads of State will be arriving in Ghana Thursday Morning for an extraordinary ECOWAS summit to consider the report of the delegation dispatched to Guinea.

Nigeria will be represented by the Vice President, while Sierra Leone and the Gambia will be represented by their Minister for Foreign Affairs.