The House of Representatives on Thursday urged the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Immigration Service to liaise with relevant security agencies to expand their coverage of the country’s porous borders.
It also resolved to constitute an Ad–hoc Committee to organize a Security Summit that will involve all Military and Para-military Agencies as well as indigenes of border communities with a view to finding lasting solutions to the socio-economic and security challenges posed by the porosity of Nigeria’s borders.
These resolutions were sequel to the unanimous adoption of a motion on: “Need to Address the Porosity of Nigeria’s Borders” sponsored by Babatunde Hunpe (APC, Lagos)
Moving the motion, Hunpe noted the large international boundaries under Nigeria’s watch and that due to insufficient resources and manpower, the borders have not been adequately secured, which has great implications on the economic, security and social development of the country.
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He was concerned that the porous nature of the borders has precipitated several crimes which pose serious threats to national security, and are causing hardship because it leads to illegal roadblocks and check points being mounted in and around border communities.
The lawmaker also expressed concern that: “the proliferation of arms, illegal immigration and smuggling of expired goods into the country are as a result of the porosity of Nigeria’s borders which also makes it easy for terrorists to carry out their activities, especially in border States like Lagos, Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Taraba, Adamawa, among others”.
He expressed worry that the volatile situation at the country’s borders has greatly hampered the efforts of the government towards ending insurgency as terrorists have continued to carry out their attacks unabated.
