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Afenifere says CDS’ disclosure of porous borders worrisome

By Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
30 August 2022   |   4:10 am
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, described as appalling and worrisome a disclosure by Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, that more than half of the borders in the North-East and North-West of the country are unguarded.

Laments Buhari’s unfulfilled promise to end terrorism
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, described as appalling and worrisome a disclosure by Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, that more than half of the borders in the North-East and North-West of the country are unguarded.

Irabor had revealed that 137 out of about 261 borders in the North-East and North-West regions of the country were unguarded and that these porous borders accounted for easy access of terrorists from neighbouring countries into Nigeria.

The Afenifere stated this in a statement made available to journalists by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The group lamented that less than a year to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the government is yet to take necessary steps on what the army chief considered as “a key source of criminality and violent crimes in those parts of the country.”

Ajayi recalled Buhari’s expression of concern “on the rise of insecurity” when speaking during this year’s Democracy Day on June 12, as well as his declaration that his government is “working hard to contain and address these challenges.

He said: “Taken Buhari’s declaration and that of Irabor, one finds it difficult not to wonder what the administration has been doing in the past seven years to contain and address security challenges in the country.

“What have the security agencies been doing about the vast unmanned borders and what has the government been doing for insecurity not to keep rising as its years in the saddle increase?”

Alluding to a statement by Irabor that “the Armed Forces are working round the clock to implement several new strategies that will bring about an end to various security challenges in Nigeria,” Afenifere urged the government and the security agencies to buckle up as time is running out.”

Ajayi, therefore, concluded by further calling on the government to employ technology and vast majority of youths to man the said porous borders.

It also urged the Federal Government to allow state governments establish state police, saying: “Doing so would reduce unemployment and enhance security in the country. As a lasting solution to Nigeria’s myriad of problems, the government should set in motion the machinery for restructuring.”

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