President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate opening of four
land borders.
The borders are Seme in the southwest, Illela in Sokoto State, Maigatari
in the northwest, and Mfun in the south-south.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Finance at the end of the
28th virtual FEC meeting on Wednesday.
The President also directed other land borders to be opened by December
31, 2020.
Buhari had on December 8, 2020, revealed plans to reopen its land
borders.
He explained that the closure of the nation’s land borders was part of
the efforts by the government to control the smuggling of weapons and
drugs into the country.
President Buhari stated this at a security meeting with members of the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking
into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” he was quoted as saying
in a statement by Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and
Publicity.
The President asked the thirty-six state governors to work more with
traditional rulers and community members to improve local intelligence
gathering that would aid the work of security agencies.