President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday that the government would order reopening of the country’s land borders which were shut in August 2019 to curb incidence of smuggling.
Buhari stated this at a meeting with the 36 governors at the State House, Abuja but did not give a specific time of action.
He said since the neighbouring countries had learnt their lessons with the border closure, there was a need to review the decision.
A statement by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu quoted Buhari as saying: “Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible.”
The statement also said the president listened to presentations by governors of each of the six geo-political zones of the country on the peculiar security challenges confronting their zones.
He was said to have tasked the governors to work closely with the traditional rulers and community members with a view to improving local intelligence gathering and complimenting the work of security agencies.
Over viewing the security situation in each of geo-political zones, the president said the federal government had done well in the northeast.
However, he said although the government had also done well in the south-south, the security situation in the zone was still worrisome.
“Every day I get situation reports about illegal refineries and the blowing up of pipelines. You must stop local rogues from sabotaging oil installations.”
Addressing the issue of banditry and kidnapping reported in each of the geo-political zones, the president said “security is important and we must secure the whole country. We are thinking very hard on the issue of kidnapping. We will make it possible for the military to get to the bandits and kidnappers and eliminate them.”
He assured that the country’s military will continue to get the support they needed to fight criminals.
“I am not going to the public to speak about the vehicles and equipment we have ordered. What I can say is that the military received armoured cars and other equipment and they are training the trainers. More of such equipment, including military aircraft will come in,” he added.
The president also restated that the West African sub-region is not as safe as a result of the earlier movements of arms across the borders following the death of the former President of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.
“The sub-region is no longer safe, more so with the collapse of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and the cross border movement of weapons and criminals. Governors must work with traditional rulers. Try and work with traditional rulers to boost intelligence gathering,” he said.
