President John Mahama of Ghana has ordered the immediate recall of Mohammed Ahmed, known as Baba Jamal, from his position as the country’s high commissioner to Nigeria over allegations of vote buying in Saturday’s parliamentary primaries.

Mahama’s decision was in response to claims that delegates were induced during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries.

Jamal was a candidate in the polls, which he later won.

During the election, Jamal’s campaign team offered 32-inch televisions and boiled eggs to delegates who took part in the primaries.

“So if you give television sets to people, what is wrong with it when you give things to people?” he asked, according to local media JoyOnline.

“Is this the first time I am giving things to people?”

Explaining the reason behind Jamal’s recall, Felix Ofosu, Mahama’s spokesperson, said that while the allegations of vote buying were made against multiple candidates who contested the primaries, Jamal was the only serving public officer among them.

“The President has also noted the public statement by the General Secretary of the NDC indicating that the Party has commenced its own investigations into the allegations arising from the primaries,” the statement reads.

“Without prejudice to the ongoing internal party processes, and strictly in view of the standards of conduct expected of public officers, the President considers it necessary to act decisively to preserve the integrity of public office and to avoid any perception of impropriety or conflict with the Government’s Code of Conduct for Political Appointees.”

Ofosu said the high commissioner’s recall takes effect immediately, and that directives had been issued to the minister for foreign affairs to take the necessary administrative steps.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has died at the age of 53, his political team announced on Tuesday.

The Head of the political team told Libyan News Agency that the young Gaddafi died near the country’s border with Algeria.

His sister confirmed the development, but did not specify the cause of death.

Born in 1972, the younger Gaddafi was once widely seen as his father’s heir apparent. The International Criminal Court had issued a warrant for his arrest, seeking to prosecute him for crimes against humanity related to his alleged role in crushing opposition demonstrations in 2011.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, says the Nigerian soldiers who were on an aircraft that made a forced landing in Burkina Faso are still in trapped in that country.

Tuggar made this disclosure during a press briefing with his Beninese counterpart, Olushegun Bakari, on Thursday at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja.

The Confederation of Sahel States (AES), on Monday, accused an aircraft carrying 11 Nigerian soldiers of violating Burkinabe airspace.

AES is a breakaway West African regional union made up of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic.

The Mali junta leader, Assimi Goita, described the landing as an unfriendly act carried out in defiance of international law.

The AES said it authorised its member states to neutralise any aircraft violating its airspace.

The development came at the same time Nigerian troops carried out air strikes in Benin to help foil a coup.

Commenting on the situation, the Nigerian Air Force, NAF, said the C-130 aircraft was on a ferry mission to Portugal.