Kazeem Owoseni
The Nigeria Customs Service on Friday, clarified that the closure of Nigeria’s borders with the Republic of Niger is not an indication of war between the two countries
Stating this while addressing the border community during his official inspection of the Illela border on Friday, August 4, 2022, the acting Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, said the two countries are not at war, as speculated in some quotas.
Nigeria had closed the border between the two West African countries, following the ouster of the constitutionally-elected President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, who has been given a house arrest with his family, at the Presidential lodge, by the country’s military guards since last week.
However, Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries have begun to cut ties with the country, following the expiration of the ultimatum given to General Abdouramane Tchisni’s led-newly declared military government, to restall the legal president of the country and the subsequent rejection of dialogue with the ECOWAS delegation to the military leaders on Thursday.
However, Nigeria in its response to the development, had cut the electricity supply to the country, as well as closed the border that linked the two countries together, to stop further economic or bilateral relationship with the country.
Adeniyi, who was at the Illela border to confirm the level of compliance with the government’s order, however, made clarified that what is happening in Nigeria is also happening in other states of West Africa that share
border with Niger Republic.
“My mission here is to restate the directives of President Bola Tinubu, being not only the Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but also Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
“As we are aware, one of the chairman’s responsibilities is to promote trade between members of ECOWAS. But we all know that trade cannot happen in an environment where there is no peace.
“So the government intends to ensure that we leverage perfectly on the nexus between trade and security,” he said.
