There were claims by social media users that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered the reopening of land borders hitherto shut by his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
The former president had in August 2019, ordered the closure of Nigeria’s land borders due to the illegal importation of drugs, arms and agricultural products into the country from neighbouring West African countries. One year after, he ordered repoing of four, namely: Idiroko border post, Ogun state (south-west zone); Jibiya border post, Katsina (north-west zone); Kamba border post, Kebbi State (north-west zone); and Ikom border post, Cross River state (south-south zone).
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Buhari justified the action, saying the closure was to encourage Nigerians to produce food for their consumption.
Before his tenure ended, Nigerians anticipated that he would lift the embargo on the borders, but that did not happen. However, a week after Tinubu took over from him, netizens claimed he (Tinubu) ordered that the borders be reopened. Many of these claims were supported by a video of some customs officers opening a border gate.
CLAIM
A Twitter user, yesterday, tweeted that the president had ordered the reopening of all Nigerian borders. This claim was backed by one Sadiq Abu Ali, who posted a video on Facebook to validate the claim. In the video, customs officers could be seen opening a border gate.
VERIFICATION
WikkiTimes subjected the video to fach check, using InVid, a toolbox for verifying audio-visual content, and findings showed that the video was shot at the Idi-iroko border. However, the border was part of the four that were reopened by Buhari in 2020.
Further search showed that the video dates back to April 26, 2022, when customs officers reopened the border.
In addition, Bamidele Makinde, Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun 1 area command, said the border was reopened in 2022.
VERDICT
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not order the opening of Nigerian borders. hence, the video backed with the claims is misleading.
A good job,keep on going .