Federal Government Reopens The Nation’s Land Borders

Minister of Finance, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed at the end of the 28th virtual FEC meeting on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate opening of four (4) of the nation’s land borders. The borders are Seme in the South-West, Illela in Sokoto State, Maigatari in the North-West, and Mfun in the South-South.

According to minister of finance, the President also directed that other nation’s  land borders be opened by December 31, 2020.

President Mohammadu Buhari had on December 8, 2020, at a security meeting with members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, revealed plans to reopen the nation’s 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

“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbors, 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 (36) state governors to work more with traditional rulers and community members to improve local intelligence gathering that would aid the work of security agencies across the nation.