President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin Republic, and Niger will remain in force until leaders of the three countries were able to meet to agree on comprehensive measures to curb smuggling into Nigeria through its two neighbouring nations.
The restriction at Seme followed the joint border security exercise ordered by the government and aimed at securing Nigeria’s land and maritime borders.
The exercise, code-named, ‘Ex-Swift Response’, was being jointly conducted by the Customs, Immigration, Police and military personnel and coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The Nigerian leader gave the reason during an audience granted his Beninois counterpart, Patrice Talon, on the margins of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD7), in Yokohama, Japan on Wednesday.
While expressing great concern over smuggling of rice into Nigeria, President Buhari said activities of the smugglers threatened the self-sufficiency already attained due to his administration’s agricultural policies.
“Now that our people in the rural areas are going back to their farms, and the country has saved huge sums of money which would otherwise have been expended on importing rice using our scarce foreign reserves.
“We cannot allow smuggling of the product at such alarming proportions to continue,” he said.
President Buhari was responding to an appeal by President Talon to his Nigerian counterpart for the reopening of the border, as a result of the severe impact the closure of the Nigerian border was having on his people.
The Nigerian President said the limited closure of the country’s western border was to allow Nigeria’s security forces develop a strategy on how to stem the dangerous trend and its wider ramifications.
Responding to the concerns raised by President Talon on the magnitude of suffering caused by the closure, President Buhari said he had taken note and would reconsider reopening the border in the not too distant future.
Meanwhile, thirty-three illegal immigrants have been arrested during an operation by the joint border security exercise being conducted by the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Immigration Service. The Armed Forces, the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies are providing support for the exercise.
Customs Public Relations Officer; Mr Joseph Attah, disclosed in a statement that the exercise had led to the arrest of 33 illegal immigrants.
Besides the arrests, the security personnel engaged in the exercise had recorded some seizures, including 3,560 50kg bags of parboiled foreign rice, 59 bags of NPK fertilizer, 15 vehicles, 12 drums filled with Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol and three engine boats.
Other items seized by the joint security outfits included 65 drums of groundnut oil, four trucks, 75 gallons of petrol, 29 motorcycles, 68 gallons of vegetable oil and 70 containers filled with petrol.
Attah said the joint security team would continue to patrol the country’s borders in the concerned areas.
“The overriding interest is to prevent the country against transnational security concerns such as smuggling, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, irregular migration, terrorism and armed banditry.
He, however, expressed regrets over inconveniences arising from the exercise for members of the general public in communities where the programme was taking place.
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