Obasanjo, Kerekou agree to reopen frontier

Nigeria and Benin agreed on Thursday night to reopen their border which Nigeria closed unilaterally six days ago in protest at Benin's failure to curb smuggling and banditry. An official communique issued at the end of a summit meeting between President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin in the Nigerian border town of Badagry said the 733 km long border would reopen on Friday morning. It said the two heads of state had agreed to set up more effective joint police border patrols and strengthen the implementation of an extradition treaty between Nigeria and Benin. Nigeria closed the border last Saturday on the grounds that cross-border raids by criminals allegedly based in Benin and the trafficking of women and children was threatening security, while the rampant smuggling of fuel and other goods was undermining its economy. The oil-rich country of 120 million people accused its smaller neighbour with a population of just seven million of doing little to stop robbers alleged to have stolen more than 2,300 posh cars from Nigeria over the past three years for resale in Benin. The border closure has hurt regional trade along the West African coast as far as Ghana. Obasanjo said before going into the summit meeting with Kerekou: "The most important point is that the criminals in our midst should know that their end has come." He added: "If we can achieve that then we've achieved something for the rest of Africa." Kerekou acknowledged that there were too many criminal activities on the border between the two countries and pledged to cooperate with Nigeria to curb them.