Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
Lawmakers in the West African subregion on the platform of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament have appealed to the Head of States and Government in the region to lift the sanctions imposed on Niger Republic following the July coup by military junta in the country.
The Head of States in ECOWAS had last July imposed sanction on Niger Republic to protest the ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum by military officers led by erstwhile Presidential Guard commander, General Abdourahamane Tchiani.
The ECOWAS Parliament made the appeal at the opening ceremony of the ECOWAS Parliament 2023 Second Ordinary session on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at 10 am, at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.
Addressing journalists, the senator representing Borno South, who is the Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, lamented that states in Nigeria, about seven of them bordering Niger Republic are at the receiving end of the sanctions.
He said: “Children and women have been exposed to untold hardship. No meaningful progress has been made in resolving this issue.
“We are appealing to ECOWAS states to lift the sanction and open the closed border between Niger and Nigeria, because it is the poor that are suffering. Let me say this is a collective decision by concerned citizens.
“This press conference is simply an appeal to the ECOWAS Heads of State to consider the humanitarian situation and resolve the political impasse in Niger.”
Details later…
