3 July 2009
Lagos — The Federal Government would tomorrow in Abuja, convene an inter-ministerial meeting over boundary disputes between Nigeria and Republic of Benin.
Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bagudu Hirse, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
"President Umaru Yar'Adua was able to meet with President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin, on the sidelines of the last ECOWAS meeting in Abuja. Both of them directed that the two sides should meet and see how the problems could be resolved amicably," Hirse said.
He said officials of both countries would visit areas in contention and meet with members of the affected communities.
"There will be a final solution to the crisis. Nigeria and Benin are very close, just a thin line at the boundary divides them. We will find a solution to it," Hirse said.
A border village in Kebbi State was recently raided and razed by Beninois marauders.
NAN investigations revealed that the border was last demarcated in 1912, with very few beacons by colonial masters, which had now disappeared and settlements expanded and crossed the borders.
A statement from the National Boundary Commission (NBC) had declared that there is the need to rediscover and re-beacon fully, the 770-kilometre Beninese-Nigerian boundary, using an inherited 1912 and 1914 protocol treaty drawn by France and Britain.
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