The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has remarked that the closure of Nigeria’s borders with the Republic of Niger was not a declaration of war between the two countries, as rumoured.
The statement had been made by the acting Comptroller General of Customs, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, while speaking to the Illela border community of Sokoto State on Friday, August 4.
Adeniyi, had also clarified that what was happening in Nigeria( the border closure), was also happening in other West African states that shared a border with Niger.
On defending Tinubu’s directive, Adeniyi had said that the border closure had to happen as it was one of the ECOWAS chairman’s responsibilities even though the directive would hamper trade between the two countries.
“We all know that trade cannot happen in an environment where there is no calm. The intention of Tinubu’s government therefore, was to ensure that the nexus between trade and security was perfectly leveraged.” Adeniyi had said.