Mr Ali Ndume, the Chief Whip of the Senate, has said that President Bola Tinubu was wrongly advised on ECOWAS sanctions on Niger military junta.
According to Ndume, the sanctions were counter-productive because they were only affecting innocent citizens.
NewsBand reported that the regional bloc slammed heavy sanctions on Niger following the removal of President Mohammed Bazoum by the country’s military.
But speaking during an interview with newsmen in Maiduguri, the lawmaker who represent Borno South in the red carpet chamber said the sanctions were not affecting the military junta but innocent citizens.
He said, “The sanctions are not affecting the military junta. The sanctions are affecting the poor people that are not part of the coup, and these are people, especially children, women, petty traders, and poor middle-income earners.
“Even the international law that guides us does not support sanctions that affect humanitarian needs. The suffering the people of Niger Republic are going through is more than imaginable.
He lamented that seven northern states who shared borders with Niger are also bearing the consequences of the sanctions.
Ndume however, appealed to Mr Tinubu, who is the ECOWAS chairman, to immediately lift the sanctions and address the crisis.
“Because Nigeria is ECOWAS, and ECOWAS is Nigeria. Nigeria has the majority of votes and contributes 70 percent of ECOWAS funding.
“I am one of those against the actions taken by the ECOWAS leadership to impose sanctions on Niger. I strongly believe that that decision was rushed and it was not the right thing. I don’t support those sanctions because the decision affects me, my state and my region.
“Over 100,000 Nigerians, Borno State citizens from Abadam, Guzamala, Kukawa, and other places, all migrated to Niger, and they received them with open arms, not putting them in the camp, but taking them to their own houses; and they have been for more than 10 years now,” he said.
“Niger Republic has been supporting Nigeria. During the Biafran War, France, the colonial masters of Niger, supported the Biafrans, but the then Niger Republic President [Diori Hammani]refused to follow France in that decision. They gave us military support. Not only that, every time Nigeria stands for something, Niger stands with us.
“Lift the sanctions first, agree with them to start negotiating on when and how they are going to release the ousted President Bazoum, and then when they are going to hand over to civilians,” he advised.