ECOWAS raises monitoring unit at Nigeria, Benin border

ECOWAS raises monitoring unit at Nigeria, Benin border

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is to set up a monitoring team, comprising of security agents, at the Nigeria-Benin border.

This development followed the unrelenting violation of the protocol of free movement of persons, goods, services and capital at the border post.

Mandate

The monitoring unit, to be located at the Seme-Lagos Highway is coming as concerns are increasingly mounting over the frequent harassment and intimidation of citizens at the border posts of the sub-region.

The unit is also expected to crack down on duplication of posts as well as agency procedures.

The security agencies are made up of the Nigerian Immigrations Service, the Customs and Excise Department, the Nigeria Police, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and special security services.

Addressing participants at the national workshop for security agencies to facilitate the setting up of the monitoring unit, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Customs, Trade, Mines, Industry, Free Movement and Tourism, Muhamed Darami, urged the security operatives to create a positive attitudinal change, through the elimination of harassment, intimidation and molestation of migrants crossing the common borders legitimately.

The ECOWAS chief spoke just as Nigeria, through the Inspector General of Police (IPG), Hafiz Ringim, pledged to help find “permanent solutions” to the scourge.

Heads of state and government in the sub-region had adopted in Dakar the protocol of Free Movement of Persons, Goods, Services and Capital creating, as an enabling instrument for a homogeneous community towards the attainment of a cohesive, vibrant and formidable regional economy.

NAN/Qasim