Niger border closure hurting Nigeria’s economy — Senator Aliero

The Senator representing Kebbi Central, Senator Adamu Aliero, has lamented that the continued closure of the land border between Nigeria and the Republic of Niger has caused serious damage to the economy of states bordering the country.

Aliero, a two-term governor of Kebbi State, while speaking on Arise Television monitored by our correspondent on Tuesday, said the closure of the border on the the Economic Community of West African States directive was unnecessary and should be revisited.

He said federal lawmakers from the affected states in the North had met and called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency open the border for business activities.

“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.”

Aliero, a former minister, said most other countries did not observe sanctions as outlined by ECOWAS on the Niger Republic.

He explained 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.

ECOWAS had imposed hefty sanctions against Niger after rebel elite soldiers on July 26 overthrew Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected president.

The 15-member West African bloc ECOWAS banned trade with Niger and threatened military action to restore democracy.

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