Guinea-Bissau’s state television and radio were occupied this Monday by “heavily armed soldiers” and employees were expelled from the premises, sources from those media told Lusa.
The reported situation occurred after the announcement by the President of the Republic of the dissolution of the National Popular Assembly, made this Monday morning by Umaro Sissoco Embaló himself and made official in a presidential decree.
A source from Guinea-Bissau Television (TGB) told Lusa that, “around 2:00 p.m.,” “open-top vans with heavily armed and hooded soldiers” arrived at the facilities.
The source specified that “they asked for the general director, who was asked for the keys to the office and the cars” and that they ordered the person in charge to “leave the television.”
He also said that “the general director handed over the keys and left”, having also ordered “that the keys to the vehicles be collected, which he handed over to the military.”
According to reports, the military ordered, “moments later, to turn on the TGB broadcast, but without the director being there, who had meanwhile gone home.”
At the moment, the TGB broadcast is on the air, but only with music.
A source from Radiodifusao Nacional (RDN Guinea Bissau) reported the same situation to Lusa, where “when the news was on the air, a group of armed soldiers entered the Radio facilities.”
“They asked us to stop the news and we did. They ordered us to leave the radio station and we left,” the source said, adding that employees were told that “the radio station will close until further notice.”
The president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, decided this Monday to dissolve Parliament, after the clashes between security forces on Thursday and Friday, which he considered a coup d’état.
The President of the Republic made the decision after a meeting of the Council of State.
Sissoco Embaló considered “a coup d’état” the fact that the National Guard removed the Minister of Finance, Suleimane Seidi, and the Secretary of State for Finance, António Monteiro, from the cells of the Judicial Police on Thursday night.
As a result of this event, armed confrontations occurred between the National Guard and the Presidency battalion, which were resolved with the intervention of the Military Police and which culminated in the arrest of the commander of the National Guard, Vitor Tchongo.
Immediately after the announcement by the President of the Republic, a strong military presence was observed in the streets in Bissau.
The president of the National Popular Assembly, Domingos Simões Pereira, considered the head of state’s decision “a constitutional coup d’état”, since only half a year had passed since the last legislative elections and the law determines that parliament can only be dissolved after an election year.
The leader of parliament made these comments upon leaving the Guinean chamber after the internal bodies advised him to close the plenary session that was being held and which he himself wanted to continue.
Domingos Simões Pereira, who was leaving the building, said he considered the decision to dissolve Parliament, in the current circumstances, “a subversion of the Constitution.”
Source: TSF
