Ekweremadu addresses issue of xenophobia at International Parliament

Senator Ike Ekweremadu, former Deputy President of the Senate, has called on the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace holding in Ethiopia to concentrate on African xenophobic attacks.
 
His media aide, Mr Uche Anichukwu, said in a statement that Ekweremadu made the call  at the opening plenary of the IPTP, October session in Addis-Ababa on Monday.
 
Ekweremadu, chairman of IPTP Committee on Legal and Statutory Affairs said “Since we are holding this session in Africa, permit me to mention the issue of xenophobia, a development that worries me.
 
“There is a growing trend in acts and incidences of intolerance, which is destroying the brotherhood, peace, and mutual relationship among the people of Africa.
 
“As a special parliament focusing on tolerance and peace, we will not close our eyes to the cases of xenophobia wherever it exists.
 
“I also appeal to our brothers and sisters in Africa to not only continue to tolerate but to also respectfully accept one another as one people with a common destiny.”
 
The former Speaker of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States commended Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy for his efforts to promote tolerance and peace in Eastern Africa.
 
He also thanked the Prime Minister for putting the 20-year conflict with Eritrea to an end.
 
“It is instructive that the efforts of this government to engender peace was recently recognised with the bestowal of the Nobel Peace Prize on Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy.
 
The award is his contribution to driving the deal that ended Ethiopia-Eritrea’s almost 20-year-old border hostilities.