Retired Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the ECOWAS envoy on the Niger Republic crisis, said discussions with the military junta were fruitful on the way forward.

He said this on Monday in Abuja after submitting a report on their visit to Niamey to President Bola Tinubu, the chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government.

Mr Abubakar, accompanied by the president of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray, said the bloc would continue to explore all options.

He said the ECOWAS delegation met with the military junta in Niamey on Saturday and discussed amicably resolving the imbroglio.

‘’I must say that our visit to Niger has been very fruitful and that it has opened an avenue to start talking, and hopefully, we’ll get somewhere,’’ he said.

Mr Abubakar said the delegation also presented the three years transitional plan of the junta to Mr Tinubu, who would table it before the region’s heads of state and government.

‘’Well, like I said, we’ve started talking, they have made their own points, and then I made my report to the chairman of the ECOWAS Heads of State and president.

‘’He will now consult with his colleagues, and then the ding-dong starts, and we’ll get somewhere, hopefully,’’ he said.

On the possibility of engaging in dialogue instead of military options to resolve the Niger crisis, he insisted that the leaders still wanted to employ diplomatic options.

‘’Hopefully, diplomacy will see the better of this. Nobody wants to go to war. It doesn’t pay anybody, but then, our leaders have said if all fails, and I don’t think all will fail, we’ll get somewhere. We’ll get out of this mess,’’ Mr Abubakar said.

During the Niger meeting in Niamey on Saturday, Mr Abubakar met with President Mohamed Bazoum, who was reported as not receiving adequate health attention along with his family.

At its meeting last week, the West African leaders ordered the deployment of a military standby force to restore constitutional rule in Niger.

(NAN)