Coup in Gabon, as military officers announce taking over power

A group of senior military officers in Gabon have announced taking over power minutes after the Gabonese Election Centre announced President Ali Bongo as the winner of Saturday’s election for a third term.

The electoral body had announced that Bongo had secured 64.27% of the vote while his main challenger, Albert Ondo Ossa scored 30.77%.

The officers who made the announcement on Wednesday morning on national television, Gabon 24, faulted the credibility of the election and said they represented all security and defence forces in the Central African nation.

Calling on the election results to be cancelled, they said all borders would remain closed until further notice while all state institutions were dissolved.

An officer who read the joint statement, was surrounded by around a dozen others who stood behind him in military fatigues and berets.

Read also: Coup scare in Niger Republic as presidential guards detain President Bazoum inside palace

“In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said, while loud sounds of gunfire could be heard in the capital Libreville, according to a report by Reuters.

Bongo, was the candidate for the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), founded by his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon from 1967 to 2009. After the death of his father, the incumbent president who was then the Minister of Defence, took his place as president and has been in power ever since.

The opposition had strongly condemned the election calling it a “fraud orchestrated by Ali Bongo and his supporters” after the internet was cut and a curfew imposed.

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