By Teddy Nwanunobi
Abuja (Sundiata Post) — The Senate, on Wednesday, announced the cancellation of the planned trip by its delegation to South Africa over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in that country.
Briefing plenary, after a closed-door session of the Upper Legislative Chamber, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, said the cancellation became imperative to avoid multiple delegations to the Southern Africa nation.
“On our trip to South Africa, we noted that the House of Representatives insists on going to South Africa independently. We thought we could lead a single and harmonised delegation of the National Assembly to avoid the embarrassment of multiple delegations. The Senate, therefore, decided to pull out to allow the House delegation to proceed,” he explained.
It would be recalled that the Senate had, on Tuesday, February 28, 2017, resolved to dispatch a delegation of the Red Chamber on a parliamentary diplomatic mission to the Parliament of South Africa to register Nigeria’s displeasure over the resurgence of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in that country, and to dialogue with their South African counterparts on how to end the perennial attacks.
Sequel to a motion by Rose Oko (PDP, Cross River North), the resolution was entitled ‘Resurgence of Xenophobic Attacks and Extra-judicial Killings of Nigerians in South Africa’.
The delegation was to be led by the Deputy Senate President.
Others named on the aborted delegation were the Senate Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan; the Chief Whip, Sola Adeyeye; Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Shehu Sani; Stella Oduah; Magnus Abe; and Shaba Lafiaji.