Gabon’s transitional leader, General Brice Oligui Nguema says former president Ali Bongo is free to leave the country and travel abroad.
Nguema said in a statement read on state television that the former former president Ali Bongo, who was ousted in putsch has freedom of movement.
“He has freedom of movement… and can travel abroad if he wishes.”
Ali Bongo, who had been in office for 14 years, had been under house arrest since the military coup on August 30th, which took place without bloodshed less than an hour after his party declared his re-election in a ballot that the put schists called illegitimate.
“Given his state of health, the former President of the Republic Ali Bongo Ondimba has freedom of movement. He can travel abroad if he wishes to carry out his medical checks,” Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi said, reading a press release signed by Oligui took his oath as transitional president on Monday.
Bongo suffered a serious stroke in October 2018 which left him physically impaired, with particular difficulty moving his right leg and arm.
Bongo took office in 2009, succeeding his father Omar, who ruled the country for some 41 years, gaining a reputation for iron-fisted rule and kleptocracy.
He was re-elected in bitterly disputed circumstances in 2016 but two years later suffered a stroke that weakened his grip on power.
According to the official disputed results, Bongo picked up 64.27 percent of the vote against 30.77 percent for Ondo Ossa.
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, Ondo Ossa pushed Oligui to resign, claiming that while he had won the elections, the result had been “cancelled” by the military takeover.
He also claimed that Oligui and Bongo were related by blood, and that the incident was more of a “palace revolution” that was currently perpetuating the “Bongo system.”
