The Nigerian Senate is considering whether to advise President Olusegun Obasanjo to close the country’s borders with neighbouring Cameroon and Chad to stem cross-border crime, a spokesperson said on Thursday.
The move came barely a week after Nigeria reopened its border with Benin after it had been shut for a similar reason.
Senator Yari Gandi told reporters that four Senate standing committees, set up to deal with the issue, will investigate the perennial problems of insecurity in the country’s northeastern states caused by cross-border bandits and smugglers from the two countries.
He said if the problems persist, the Senate will direct Obasanjo to close the borders with the two west African countries.
”We should be worried about the security of the nation. If organised groups are attacking Nigeria, we can’t be treating it lightly,” another senator, David Mark, said.
Nigeria has accused its neighbours of taking a lacksadaisical attitude in the battle against banditry, human trafficking and smuggling along the borders frontiers.
Two weeks ago, Nigeria closed its border with Benin and reopened it five days later following appeals by that country’s leader, President Mathieu Kerekou.
The closure threatened tiny Benin with financial ruin, cutting its traders off from Nigeria’s huge market of 126-million people and from supplies of smuggled, subsidised fuel.
Last week Kerekou ceded to pressure from Obasanjo to step up security on the west African neighbours’ 773-kilometre frontier.
The two countries agreed to set up a joint customs task force and border patrol to stem cross-border crimes. – Sapa-AFP