NURTW members decry decrease in income due to border closure.

Recall that the federal government has last week ordered a partial closure of the border to forestall any form of importation of goods that can further aggravate insecurity in the country.

According a chieftains and members of the union in Mile 2, they now make less than 10 percent of what they used to make daily before the border closure.

The Federal Government had ordered the  shutdown of  the nation’s border for 28 days under the code name “Ex Swift Response” in furtherance to curb smuggling and insecurity along the frontier.

In a joint military operation, the border has been partially closed for eight days now.

While lamenting the closure of the borders and how it affected the union’s fortunes, Chairman, of one of the parks in Mile 2, who declined to mention his name, claimed that there has been a massive drop in levy collection on vehicles at all the units along the ECOWAS corridor

The Chairman who prefers anonymity explained that most of the parks along the Lagos – Badagry Expressway , are scanty due to the federal government directive on border closure.

He maintained that items smuggled or brought from the popular Cotonou  market have dropped 100% ,while passengers who have businesses to transact at the borders dropped drastically.

“Usually in a day  we use to collect N10,000 from buses plying this route to Seme but for the past one week that the border has been closed, we don’t even make up to a N1000.

” We use to collect N200 per bus plying Mile 2 to Seme border but as we speak we cannot count up to three a day because nobody is ready to risk such movement when there is nothing happening in Cotonou.

The chairman noted that most of the parks along the frontier warehouses contraband items like vegetable oil, second clothing, bags of parboiled rice and tomato pastes, which were brought into Nigeria through smaller quantities.

He lamented that : ” On a daily basis, I personally make N10,000/per day when business was OK. But since the closure of the border I make just a N1000.

Giving a vivid background of the union’s parks affected in closure, NURTW chieftain, mentioned Agbara  , Ijanikin , Alaba Arago and Mile 2.

Also a bus driver at the popular Mile 2 Park, Peter Nnaji corroborated the Chairman’s submission saying, “I now shuttle Seme once a day because of the situation,’

The driver  said, passengers lull was as a result of the border closure , pointing out that a large number of drivers who ply the axis no longer patronise the ECOWAS corridor.