August 30 (THEWILL) – The leaders of the coup in Gabon have named Republican Guard chief, General Brice Oligui Nguema, transitional president.
“General Oligui Nguema Brice was unanimously appointed chairman of the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, chairman of the transition,” the Putschists announced in a press release read on national television, Gabon 24.
The appointment came hours after the announcement of a military takeover on state-run television that sacked President Ali Bongo over disputed elections on Saturday.
Bongo had won 64.27 percent of the vote, a contested victory in an election the opposition said was a “fraud orchestrated” by Bongo and his supporters. Leading opposition candidate, Albert Ossa, who represented a merger of six parties, came second with 30 percent of the vote.
Nguema is one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in Gabon and is believed to be related to the deposed president.
As the son of a military officer, he was inclined to join the military from a young age and trained at the Royal Military Academy of Meknes, in Morocco.
His military skills were noticed by members of Gabon’s former President, Omar Bongo’s Republican Guard.
Nguema then served as Bongo’s “aides-de-camp” or military assistant to a commander in the guard until the former Gabonese leader’s death in 2009.
When Omar Bongo’s son, Ali Bongo, rose to power in October 2009, Nguema was sent to Morocco and Senegal for diplomatic missions but returned to Gabon in 2018. A year later, he took over as the head of the guard.
