Nigeria and Benin Republic have agreed to hasten the process of delineating the international borders separating the two countries to curtail the contribution of immigrants to the security chalenges in the country.
To this end, Vice President Sambo met on Friday with relevant
security agencies, stakeholders and Governors of states bordering the Benin
Republic.
As government troops are being deployed heavily to the three
states under a State of Emergency, Nigeria must look to curbing a spill over
and re entry of fleeing terrorist at any point along the vast country's borders.
There had already been issues on skirmishes between indigenes
of Nigeria and Benin Republic along the border, so now is the right time to
cash in on the excellent diplomatic relations between the two countries and
bilateral agreement on these issues.
Interior Minister, Abba Moro expressed the hope that the
meeting would go a long way from preventing an escalation of these skirmishes.
As for equipping border agencies from both sides to deal with
the security challenges that may arise from the State of Emergency in Borno,
Yobe and Adamawa states which are incidentally also border states, Comrade Moro
believes both countries are already collaborating seamlessly on that.
It remains to be seen if this meeting will go beyond words
and actually prepare Nigeria for unforeseen dimensions which the operations in
the North East will throw up.
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