By: Kebba AF Touray
The ECOWAS Parliament assures stakeholders that it is working tirelessly to restore normalcy in its work environment.
The Community Parliament gave this assurance in a press release issued on Thursday, 25April 2024, and this came high on the heels of the temporal shut down of the Abuja International Conference Center (ICC).
The shutting down of the Abuja ICC is an instruction from the Federal Government of Nigeria, and has led to the ECOWAS Parliament’s operations being negatively impacted upon.
“The ECOWAS Parliament is working assiduously with the relevant authorities of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, to restore normal order of its work environmentfollowing the temporary shut-down of the Abuja International Conference Centre (I.C.C),” the release said.
“The Parliament maintains some shared services with the Abuja I.C.C. such as electricity supply and some leased office spaces, which serves as annexes to the Parliament,” the release further indicated.
Nonetheless, the recent erratic general state of affairs in power supply has caused the Parliament to experience power disruptions during work hours, owing to the absence of the I.C.C. power generator personnel engaged to man the service.
The release also stated that the I.C.C shut-down has also triggered the deployment of a new security management at its main entrance as well as the demarcation of the I.C.C – ECOWAS Parliament facilities with a temporal perimeter fence, whereas hitherto, they had a seamless boundary separating the two facilities.
As a Parliament, the release indicated that it has established talks with FCT authorities and can safely infer that these measures put in place by its host authorities, are to facilitate impendingrehabilitation exercises being planned for the I.C.C. facility.
“It was not intended to cause any disruptions and inconveniences for the Parliament,” the release said and assured that to this extent, discussions are on-going with their host with a view to ensure that the operations of the ECOWAS Parliament are smooth, with the least possible interruptions.
