This Monday, Guinean police fired tear gas grenades near the residence of Social Renewal Party (PRS) leader Fernando Díaz to disperse militants concentrated there.
The leader of the AKP, founded by the late former Guinean President Koumba Yala, called a meeting of the Political Commission, but police wanted to prevent it from taking place, according to Gabriel Yeh, the party’s public relations manager.
As PRS commissioners prepared to enter the party’s headquarters in the Kundok district on the outskirts of Bissau, police tried to prevent access, he said.
Fernando Diaz’s house is located just two meters from the headquarters, the perimeter of which was occupied by the police.
When everything indicated that the meeting would not take place, Fernando Diaz and a group of activists broke through the police cordon and entered the headquarters, where they held a meeting of the Political Commission, he said.
At the end, party representative Roberto Mbesba read out a resolution of this body confirming the leadership of Fernando Dias, who, in turn, sharply criticized the current political and military power of the country “for everything that happens against the PSO.”
“This is all the work of President Umaro Sissoko Embalo, with the illumination of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Biage Na Ntan,” said Fernando Diaz.
The AKP president said he would continue to “defend democracy” in Guinea-Bissau and said he would not blame police who “try to boycott the party’s actions.”
After the meeting at the PSO headquarters, Fernando Diaz and the group of activists accompanying him returned to their residence, and ten minutes later the police used tear gas grenades to disperse the people, Lusa discovered at the scene.
Diaz’s residence was surrounded by a police cordon while the politician was inside with his family and some party members, preventing police from entering the building.
A journalist inside the building told Lusa that “some people fainted” after inhaling tear gas fired by police. These people were taken to hospital, the same source added.
A source at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Order told Lusa that the police acted to “comply with a court order.”
A group of PRS activists challenging the leadership of Fernando Dias, led by current Finance Minister Ilidio Te, has asked the court to temporarily hand over the party to veteran Ibrahima Sori Djalo.
Fernando Diaz’s management considers this act a “coup.”
MB//MLL
Lusa/The End
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.