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There are indications that despite Nigeria’s N52b massive eBorder project, the country’s efforts to secure the nation’s expansive and porous border may be difficult to achieve, going by the concerns raised Monday by the Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, a Naval Vice Admiral.
The Federal Executive Council, FEC , had on the 25th of April, this year, Thursday, approved N52b for eBorder solution that will enable government monitor 86 border posts and 1400 illegal entry routes
The outgoing Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, while briefing State House Correspondents, described the initial pilot project already carried out as “ very successful,” adding that “it was installed to monitor two borders”.
The project, he said, would to cover 86 border posts in the country, with the Nigeria Immigration Service working closely with other services.
“We will be able to also monitor 1,400 illegal routes that are used for smuggling and all kinds of cross border criminal activities.
“When it comes to response, with the Air Force and the Army units deployed near the borders, with the customs in terms of smuggling, the information will be available real-time 24/7,” he said.
But speaking after rising from Nigeria’s Security Chiefs rose from a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of the president’s second term inauguration on Tuesday, the Chief of Naval Staff said several areas of concerns were raised including “ arms inflow into the nation” adding that “ it is only God perhaps that can police such an expanse of border that we have”.
Ekwe Ibas, who however did not make any reference to the eBorder project and its impact, stated:“I’m sure you will recall we met just about two weeks ago but the President had to call for this meeting given that tomorrow he will be sworn in. Of course basically the meeting was to further reappraise the actions taken after the last meeting.
“You all recall too the spate of insecurity particularly armed banditry, kidnapping and robbery had been specifically on the increase in some parts of the country.”
He stated that President Buhari was happy with the security situation, the efforts that the armed forces and the security agencies were carrying out to tackle the security challenges.
Speaking further on the border issue, Ekwe Ibas said: “Mr. President has directed that we do all that we can to ensure that we block the gaps and those security areas that we also need to address.
According to him, “Solution of course is to identify other means and strategies of addressing the borders’ porous nature. The military’ responsibility is to defend the country, but there are other agencies of government that are responsible for manning the various border openings. An option perhaps is the surveillance in the air and other things are being considered,” he added.
