President Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, ordered the opening of four land borders.

The borders are Seme in Lagos, Illela in Sokoto, Maigatari in Jigawa and Mfum in Cross River.

The minister of finance, budget and national planning Mrs. Zainab Ahmed who announced this at the end of the federal executive council (FEC) meeting held in Abuja said the president had directed the reopening of the four land borders with a promise to reopen the others by December 31, 2020.

The federal government had, last August closed its land borders over the proliferation of illegal importation of drugs, small arms and agricultural products into Nigeria from neighbouring West African countries.

But at a meeting with governors last week, Buhari said the borders would be reopened since the closure had yielded results.

“Now that the message has sunk in with our neighbours, we are looking into reopening the borders as soon as possible,” he had said.

Farmers in the country had pleaded with the federal government not to reopen the border which they said would affect them negatively.