Nigerien president Isssoufou receives Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament
Niamey, Niger (PANA) – The Nigerien president, Mahamadou Issoufou, on Monday received the Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Sidie Mohamed Tunis, who is on a working visit to Niger.
After the meeting, Sidie told the media that he came to offer the condolences of the ECOWAS Parliament to President Issoufou and the Nigerien people following the terrorist attack perpetrated on Sunday in Kouré, some 60 kilometers east of Niamey, and which claimed the lives for eight persons, including six French humanitarian workers and two Nigeriens.
‘’As Parliament, we condemn the attack because we think that in our ECOWAS space, terrorism does not have a place, we must unite to combat this phenomenon," said Mr Sidie.
On the objective of his mission to Niger, Sidibe stressed the need to elect members of the Parliament through direct universal suffrage, adding that his team has just introduced a programme that will buttress the appeal to the Nigerien president.
‘’Today, we have come to present to President Issoufou a memorandum, an action plan that outlines the steps to follow until the materialization of the establishment of the direct universal suffrage for Members of the ECOWAS Parliament," he said, adding that ‘’we hope, in the next four years that MPs will be elected by the citizens of the community’’.
‘’This will certainly be a long process, but with the help of President Issoufou, we will begin and will make it," he said.
Sidie also reaffirmed that they discussed with President Issoufou the socio-economic situation in Mali, announcing that in the days to come, the ECOWAS Parliament will send a delegation to Niger to look into the ways and means to bring back peace and security there.
-0- PANA SA/BEH/MSA/VAO 10Aug2020
