Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) Chairman ,President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday said “contagious autocracy” is spreading across Africa but reaffirmed his commitment to working with other heads of state in the continent to defend democracy.

President Tinubu stated this in his first response to the Wednesday coup in Gabon, according to a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Strategy, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale.

Military officers in Gabon took over power in the central African country claiming that they seized power in the central African country because elections held over the weekend were not credible.

Consequently, they cancelled the elections, dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders.

Mr Ngelale in the statement said President Tinubu is “watching closely with deep concern” for Gabon’s socio-political stability and “at the seeming autocratic contention apparently spreading across different regions of our beloved continent.”

President Tinubu is leading ECOWAS’ efforts to reverse the coup in Niger Republic and has been reluctant to authorise the use of force as approved by the ECOWAS heads of government to restore constitutional order in Niger.

Below is the full statement by Mr Ngelale on behalf of President Tinubu.

“President Bola Tinubu is watching closely with deep concern for the country’s social political stability and at the seeming autocratic contention apparently spreading across different regions of our beloved continent.

” The President as a man who has made significant, personal sacrifices in his own life in the course of advancing and defending democracy is of the unwavering belief that power belongs in the hands of Africa’s great people and not in the barrel of a loaded gun.

“The President affirms that the rule of law and a faithful recourse to the constitutional resolutions and instruments of electoral dispute resolution must not at any time be allowed to perish from our great continent.