Former governor of Kebbi state and the current Senator representing Kebbi Central, Senator Adamu Aliero, has decried that the continued land border closure between Nigeria and the Republic of Niger has resulted to serious damage to the economy of those states sharing border with the country.
Speaking on Arise Television morning show on Tuesday 16 January 2024, Aliero, said the closure of the border on the Economic Community of West African States directive was not needed and should be reviewed.
He maintained that federal lawmakers from the affected states in the North had met and called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency reopen the borders for business activities to thrive.
He stated in parts; “Our people living in the communities that shared the border with Niger are the ones suffering and bearing the brunt.
“If you go to the border today, you will see over a thousand trucks coming back to the country with goods from different countries but are struck in the border because of this ECOWAS sanction.
Even the agreement we had with the country on the dredging of dam supplying our electricity has been breached when the government decided to cut off the light supply to the Niger Republic.”
The former FCT minister said, most other countries did not observe sanctions as outlined by ECOWAS on the Niger Republic. He said that the 15-member West African bloc ECOWAS banned trade with Niger and threatened military action to restore democracy
Explaining further that most of the sanctions especially the closure of the border and cutting off electricity supply to the country, only had negative effects on ordinary citizens and not the military junta as was expected, Aliero added that ECOWAS had imposed severe sanctions against Niger after rebel elite soldiers on July 26, overthrew the country’s democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum.
