By Emmanuel Nduka
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who took power in a coup in Burkina Faso on January 24, has been declared “President” by the Constitutional Council, AFP reports.
The Council in a decision notified to him on Wednesday, said “Mr Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, lieutenant-colonel of the national armed forces, is the president of Faso” since 24 January.
On February 8, 2022, the Council took note of the resignation of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré from his duties as President of Burkina Faso and officially noted the vacancy of this position as of January 24, 2022.
Meanwhile, Damiba, who is also “head of state” and “supreme chief of the army”, is expected to “take the oath of office before the Constitutional Council”.
It was however not specified on which day he will be sworn in as President, according to a judicial source who explained that it must be “fixed by mutual agreement” between the presidency and the Constitutional Council.
This development comes even as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) have bother suspended Burkina Faso from their bodies, without further sanctions, asking the junta for a “reasonable” timetable for this “return to constitutional order”.
Damiba has thus officially become the President of a transitional period until constitutional order is restored.
