President Muhammadu Buhari orders immediate re-opening of four land borders across the country. This statement, comes a few weeks after meeting with the 36 state governors over the issue of the re-opening of land borders and security.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement released by the Presidency on Wednesday 16th December 2020, stated that the Buhari who had earlier joined the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting virtually from Daura, ordered the re-opening of the four land borders, namely, Seme in Lagos, Illela in Sokoto, Maigatari in Jigawa and Mfun in Cross River. Others will be reopened before Dec. 31st, 2020.
While no further details were given as to this latest news, recall that we reported here that the President, after meeting with the 36 state governors on the 8th December 2020, promised to re-open the land borders as soon as possible, as neighbouring countries have received the message the federal government wanted to past with the closure.
The President while at the meeting with the 36 state governors, said:
“In my meeting with State Governors today I explained that the closure of Nigeria’s land borders was partly an attempt to control the smuggling in of weapons & drugs. Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours,we’re looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” he said.
The President also touched on the issue of intelligence gather, and what the administration is doing to tackle the current security challenges in the country. He had said:
“Intelligence-gathering is also very critical to ensuring lasting security in Nigeria. In this regard, everyone has a role to play, in addition to the security agencies: Governors, traditional rulers, community leaders, citizens. We must all work to boost intelligence-gathering.
We are investing heavily in weapons and equipment for our military. They have already received armoured cars and other equipment, and aircraft, and more will come in. We will continue to give them all the support they need to fight criminals. We must and will secure Nigeria,” he had added.