Nigeria has granted asylum to Guinea-Bissau presidential candidate Fernando Díaz da Costa, just days after a coup blocked the release of recent election results.

Nigeria’s foreign minister said the 47-year-old, a candidate for the Socialist Ennahda Party, was being given special protection at the Nigerian embassy after receiving “threats”.

Díaz is the main challenger to Umaro Sissoko Embalo, who is seeking re-election as president and left the country after the military takeover.

A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States has arrived in the country to urge the military to step down and release the results of the vote.

But the electoral commission now says it will not be able to announce the results because armed men wearing balaclavas destroyed files and the main computer server where results from different regions were stored.

Both Embalo and Díaz won the presidential election on November 23.

The PAIGC, the liberation movement that ended Portuguese colonial rule, is barred from fielding candidates.

The coup occurred three days after the vote. The military suspended the election process, preventing the results from being announced, insisting the move was aimed at thwart plots to destabilize politically unstable countries.

The junta also tightened restrictions in the country, banning all demonstrations and “all acts that interfere with the peace and stability of the country.”

The situation in the capital Bissau remains high. The PAIGC said its headquarters was “unlawfully invaded by heavily armed militia groups” after the coup.

Its leader, Domingos Pereira, was arrested on the day of the coup, according to his family and party members.

Díaz said that on the day of the coup, armed men came to arrest him and he fled the campaign headquarters.

Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tugal said President Bola Tinubu had agreed to provide protection for Dias at the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.

“The decision to accommodate Mr. (Fernando Dias) da Costa in the Nigerian embassy underscores our strong commitment to upholding the democratic aspirations and sovereign will of the good people of Guinea-Bissau,” Tugar said in a letter to Aliou Omar Toure, chairman of the ECOWAS Commission.

The letter also requested that soldiers from the ECOWAS force in the country be deployed to the Nigerian embassy to ensure Dias’ safety.

On Monday, an ECOWAS delegation led by Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabbah held intense and meditative talks with the military junta.

Afterwards, Kabbah told reporters that the discussions had been “productive” but noted that “concerns were expressed on both sides.”

The military junta has sworn in new transitional leader General Horta Ntam, Who will rule the country for a year.

ECOWAS leaders have suspended Guinea-Bissau’s participation in all decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored.

On Tuesday, Idrissa Jallow, a senior electoral commission official, explained how her office came under attack on the day of the coup.

“They confiscated the computers of all 45 staff members who were at the committee that day,” he said in a statement.

He added that not only were the election results stored there destroyed, but electoral tallies that were being transferred to two key areas in the capital were also intercepted and confiscated by armed men.

The real motives behind the coup in Guinea-Bissau remain unclear People speculate that this may have been staged.

Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and former Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan both said the coup was fabricated without providing evidence.

Some local civil society groups also accused Embalo of planning a “mock coup” against him with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to prevent the election results from being announced in case he failed.

Embalo, who has previously faced accusations of exploiting the crisis to suppress dissent, has yet to respond to the coup accusations.

The 53-year-old Allowed to travel to neighboring Senegal on ThursdayFrom there he reportedly traveled to Congo-Brazzaville over the weekend.

Guinea-Bissau has seen at least nine coups or attempted coups in the past five years.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, it is known as a drug trafficking hub and the military has been influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.