Group calls for probe of ECOWAS Parliament

• Urges FG to stop funding organisation

The Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), urged the Federal Government to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the sacking of 18 Nigerians by the Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Mustapha Cisse Lo’.

CACER Executive Director, Frank Tietie, who disclosed this yesterday at press conference in Abuja, said 18 Nigerians were sacked by the speaker in a hatched plan to replace them with Senegalese.

The contract terms provide for annual renewal but were ignored by the speaker who refused to renew their contract, citing irregularities in their recruitment process.

Tietie stated that the sack appears a shocking example of the abuse of office that is outside the practice in ECOWAS. He opined that the new Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament who was elected as the Fourth Speaker of the 4th Legislature in February 9, 2016 has also vowed to undo all the works of the former Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

“The insensitivity of the honourable speaker to the plight of the staff of other nationals who has been denied contract renewal and laid off unceremoniously since July 2016, smacks off a premeditated plan to punish these poor Nigerians and portrays ECOWAS as an organization that is discriminatory and has no regard for her employees.

CASER called on the Federal Government to stop funding the ECOWAS due to its injustice to Nigerians. Tietie explained that under President Mohamadu Buhari, GCFR, Nigeria has continued to make her community levy available without which ECOWAS would have grounded, as about 70 percent of what comes to her is from Nigeria.

“Nigeria and other nationals do not deserve the treatment they are receiving from the Senegalese Speaker, what is good for a Senegalese staff that has been barely trained, just being a year in office, is also good for these other staff from other nationals, majority of which are locally recruited junior staff from Nigeria.

According to him: “We are requesting that the Honorable Speaker should renew the contract of all these affected staff as their duties were all justified before recruitment just like he justified the extension of the webmaster.