The closure of the Niger border by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was unnecessary and should be revisited.
Senator Adamu Aliero, (PDP, Kebbi) made the call on Tuesday when he appeared on a programme Arise Television monitored by our correspondent.
He said the continued closure of the land border between Nigeria and the Republic of Niger has caused serious damage to the economy of states bordering the country.
According to him, federal lawmakers from the affected states in the North had met and called on the Federal Government to urgently open the border for business activities.
“Our people living in the communities that shared the border with Niger are the ones suffering and bearing the brunt.
“If you go to the border today, you will see over a thousand trucks coming back to the country with goods from different countries but are struck in the border because of this ECOWAS sanction.
“Even the agreement we had with the country on the dredging of dam supplying our electricity has been breached when the government decided to cut off the light supply to the Niger Republic.”
He explained that most of the sanctions, especially the closure of the border and cutting off electricity supply to the country, only had negative effects on ordinary citizens and not the military junta as was expected.
ECOWAS had imposed hefty sanctions against Niger after rebel elite soldiers on July 26 overthrew Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected president.
The former minister of the FCT said many other ECOWAS members did not observe sanctions as outlined by ECOWAS on the Niger Republic.
The regional bloc ECOWAS banned trade with Niger and threatened military action to restore democracy.