By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Senate on Tuesday gave its approval for President Bola Tinubu’s deployment of troops to Benin Republic after Benin’s government asked its bigger neighbour for help to quell an attempted coup on Sunday.
Tinubu said in a letter to lawmakers that Benin’s authorities had asked for “exceptional and immediate provision of air support” by Nigeria’s armed forces after reporting an “attempted unconstitutional seizure of power and disruption of democratic institutions.”
Under Nigerian law, the president must seek the Senate’s authority to deploy troops in a foreign country.
Benin’s government on Monday said Nigerian fighter jets had carried out airstrikes to thwart a coup bid in which mutinying soldiers tried to seize President Patrice Talon.
Tinubu stressed Nigeria’s commitment to regional security and its “close ties of brotherhood and friendship” with Benin, as well as principles upheld by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Tinubu had urged lawmakers to act “expeditiously” to support the stability of Benin, which shares a border more than 700 km long with Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
Meanwhile, ECOWAS Commission President Omar Alieu Touray said the bloc faced several problems, including coups and jihadist violence.
“It is safe to declare that our community is in a state of emergency,” Touray told a ministerial meeting of ECOWAS mediation and security council in Abuja.
ECOWAS, which condemned the attempted power grab in Benin, has ordered the deployment of its standby force in the West African country.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
