ECOWAS must Sanction President Macky Sall et al of Senegal

Following the recent democratic crisis in Senegal due to the suspension of the country’s presidential elections on 25 February 2024, amid citizens' protest cum legislative malpractice in voting for the suspension, which is likened to a coup d' etat against democracy, it calls for ECOWAS to take drastic measures against His Excellency President Macky Sall, his executives and those parliamentarians who voted in favour of the suspension in the form of sanctions as a means of restoring democracy.

Knowing democracy primarily emanates from parliament and in Senegal's case the National Assembly, any attempt to use the state security services to enter the chamber to exclude some members of parliament as was done in Senegal on the 4th of February 2024 leading to a YES vote as planned by president Macky Sall, that has led to a democratic crisis which is another form of a coup d'etat by a hybrid civilian-military government, this must be dealt with forthrightly with sanctions tailored towards the principals being, the president of Senegal His Excellency President Macky Sall, other executive members of his government,

Speaker of the National Assembly H. E. Amadou Mame Diop, and the one hundred and four (104) parliamentarians who voted in favour of the suspension of presidential elections knowing of the deliberate forced exclusion of their colleagues.

Below are the proposed tailored sanctions against the actors of anti-democracy in Senegal:

Sanction 1: Travel ban: President Macky Sall, his executive members, Speaker of Parliament H.E. Amadou Mame Diop, and the 104 parliament members must be listed with their passports and bio-details and banned from travelling outside Senegal.

Sanction 2: Prohibition of medical care abroad: The listed individuals in sanction 1 must be prohibited from traveling outside the shores of Senegal for medical treatment when need be and no foreign medical practitioner must be allowed to enter Senegal to attend to the health care of the above-listed persons.

Sanction 3: Freeze bank accounts: The bank accounts of all the persons listed in sanction 1 outside the shores of Senegal must be frozen until further instructions otherwise by ECOWAS.

With these sanctions in place, it has a high propensity to bite and eventually force H.E. President Macky Sall and his team of leadership to restore democracy as earlier scheduled being voting before April 2024 and handing over in April 2024 to allow the sanctions to be lifted.