THE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says it has received 139 Nigerians who were repatriated from Agadez, Niger Republic.
As part of its efforts to guarantee the safe and respectable repatriation of Nigerian migrants, the agency made this announcement on Thursday, July 31, on its official X Twitter.
The 139 Nigerians who returned from Agadez, Niger Republic, were received by the Kano Operations Office. The returnees landed at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, after being flown by Sky Mali from Agadez, Niger Republic, according to NEMA.
According to the organisation, the returns included 33 male and 32 female youngsters, as well as 22 male and 52 female adults.
According to The Intercept, Nigeria’s northern borders with the Niger Republic have long been infamously porous, allowing for frequent and mainly uncontrolled cross-border travel.
From Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Niger, Kwara, Kebbi, and Sokoto states bordering Benin Republic, to Cross River, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa Borno states bordering Cameroon, and Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Borno which share border with Niger, as well as Borno bordering Chad, Nigeria has hundreds of porous borders, making illegal migration easy for residents of the neighbouring countries.
In 2022, the former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lucky Irabor, said northern Nigeria alone had 137 unprotected borders out of the 261 approved by the Federal Government.
“There are about 364 approved international border points in Nigeria, with about 261 in the North-East and North-West regions. Out of this, only 124 are manned, leaving the remaining 137 unmanned by security agencies,” Irabor said.
In June 2025, during a media briefing at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, the current CDS, Christopher Musa, called for the fencing of the nation’s borders to curb insecurity and other crimes. Many Nigerians believe fencing the borders is a white elephant project for a nation battling revenue deficits, high debts, and ballooning corruption.
“Those thinking that building a border fence to protect our country from these crisis-infested countries and end porosity would be too expensive should learn from countries like Pakistan, which built a border wall separating the country from Afghanistan, a double border wall in a square size that is bigger than Nigeria,” he said.
