Senate angry with Reps, cancels trip to South Africa

THE Senate, on Wednesday, announced the cancellation of the planned trip of its delegation to South Africa over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in the country.

The Deputy President of the Senate lke Ekweremadu, who made this known during the plenary after a closed-door session, said the cancellation became imperative to avoid multiple delegations to the South African nation.

Ekweremadu, who presided, said: “On our trip to South Africa, we note 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.”

It will be recalled that the Senate, had, on Tuesday, February 28, 2017, resolved to send a delegation on a parliamentary diplomatic mission to the Parliament of South Africa to register the nation’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.

The resolution was sequel to a motion by Senator Rose Oko (PDP, Cross River North) entitled “Resurgence of Xenophobic Attacks and Extrajudicial Killings of Nigerians in South Africa”.

The delegation was to be led by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Others named on the aborted delegation were Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan; the Chief Whip, Senator Sola Adeyeye; Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Shehu Sani; Senator Stella Oduah; Senator Magnus Abe and Senator Shaba Lafiaji.