Out of the 261 sanctioned borders, 137, according to General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff, are unprotected in Northern Nigeria.
Irabor also said the borders are impeding the fight against terrorism in the country.
He revealed this on Friday in Lagos while giving a lecture on “security, defence, and development in Nigeria.”
He continued by pointing out that terrorists can easily enter our nation from nearby nations.
“Our borders are largely unmanned. The penetrability of our vast unmanned land areas – the north-east and north-west zones, particularly Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Katsina states – with neighbouring countries such as the Niger Republic and Chad among others has continued to be a key source of criminality and violent crimes in those parts of the country.
“The porous nature of the borders has made it easily accessible for terrorists and bandits to enter the country to commit mayhem.
“For instance, there are about 364 approved international border points in Nigeria with about 261 in the north-east and north-west regions.
“Out of this 261, only 124 are manned leaving the remaining 137 unmanned by security agencies.
“Intelligence suggests that violence actors are using some of these normal border points to move freely from countries into Nigeria to cause mayhem,” Tribune quoted him as saying.
He, however, expressed confidence that with the use of technology and physical structures in border management, security will be improved in the country.
