Deputy Chairman, House of Reps Committee on University Education and member representing Eket/ONNA/Esit Eket/Ibeno Federal Constituency, Hon. Okpolupm Etteh, has emphasised the need for collaborative efforts among parliaments to promote efficient regional parliamentary operations.
Etteh underscored the importance of fostering effective partnerships among regional parliaments at the just concluded 64th Session of the Organization of African, Caribbean, Pacific States (OACPS) Parliamentary Assembly and Constitutive Meeting/1st Session of the OACPS-European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly (OACPS-EU JPA) which took place in Luanda, Angola.
The release made available to Tribune Online from the lawmaker’s media unit, indicates that the event, held from the 17th to the 21st day of February 2024, revolved around the theme ‘A New Dawn in OACPS-EU Relations: Towards a People-Led Partnership’.
Speaking to select journalists on his return to Akwa Ibom, Etteh hinted that the event afforded members of the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly a better ground to inaugurate new joint institutions and commemorated the enactment of the Samoa Agreement, signed on 15 November 2023, which replaced the Cotonou agreement of 2000 and the former Lomé Convention of 1975.
According to him, Nigeria is among few other Countries that are yet to sign the Samoa agreement.
Among the Nigerian delegation, led by Rt. Hon. Dr Adewunmi Onanuga, Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, were Hon. Ishaya David Lalu, Hon. Amobi Godwin Ogah, and Hon. Murtala Usman Banye, according to the release.