President Patrice Talon of the Republic of Benin visited Nigeria on Wednesday in a move to avert the closure of the Nigeria-Benin Republic Border, The PUNCH has learnt.
It was gathered that Talon visited President Muhammadu Buhari and the two leaders met behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
A top government official told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that the visit was to avert the closure of the border by the Nigerian government.
The source said, “The Federal Government is considering closing that border because of the kind of smuggling that goes on through it into Nigeria.
“The President has already charged other security agencies to be ready to reinforce the activities of men of the Nigeria Customs Service at that border.
“This is because of the rate at which rice, cars and even small arms are being smuggled into Nigeria from Republic of Benin and the nonchalant attitude of the government of that country to it.”
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, confirmed the visit of Talon in a statement he made available to our correspondent.
The statement quoted Buhari as telling Talon that smugglers used his country as a transit point in the smuggling of commodities, particularly rice, into Nigeria.
The President reportedly said, “When I got into office in 2015, the first thing I did was to visit all our neighbours: Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroon, and Benin Republic.
“It made both economic and security sense because if you are in good terms with your neighbours, you ultimately spend less on both physical and food security.”
He identified the smuggling of small arms and ammunition into the country as even more worrisome.
In his remark, Talon was quoted as saying that smuggling affected both Nigeria and his country negatively and constituted a threat to the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
“We are aware of how rice smuggling is affecting the development of local capacity in rice farming in Nigeria.
“It is affecting trade between us negatively and Nigeria is an important partner for a country like Benin.
“But we have no powers to block goods meant for other countries, and our country is not the final destination for the smuggled rice. We need to develop a common will to face the problem.


”http://punchng.com/benin-republic-moves-to-avert-closure-of-nigerian-border/amp/

corrupt custom service. Food don done for them

What about niger (the country) and chad border. Abi is it because they are fulani.