The House of Representatives Thursday urged the federal government to fortify the nation’s borders by closing 1,497 illegal routes into the country in order to check insurgency and proliferation of illicit arms.

Leading debate on a motion titled “urgent need to check illegal routes into Nigeria in order to reduce acts of terrorism”, Representative Chika Okafor noted that there were about 1,497 illegal routes and 84 regular entry points into Nigeria.
On illicit fire arms, he noted that “over 100 million illicit weapons are in circulation in Sub-Saharan Africa with Nigeria accounting for a lion share of 70 million weapons, owing to the porous nature of her borders”.

He said “this state of affair portends great danger to the nation especially in the light of the current security challenges being faced by Nigeria where insurgents easily enter and leave the country at will through the porous borders.”

In its resolution, the House urged the federal government to declare emergency on the porous borders.
Also, the legislative body urged relevant government agencies, including the Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Police Force to “increase their manpower bases by recruiting the required personnel as well as acquiring border monitoring technology to secure the nation’s borders.”

The House further urged the Surveyor General of the Federation and Federal Ministry of Works to embark on perfect markings in the various border points by building lines, hedges and deploying other modern means to increase clear demarcations at the various borders.

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