THE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received 139 Nigerians who were repatriated from Agadez, Niger Republic.
The agency revealed this on its official X handle on Thursday, July 31, as part of its efforts to ensure the safe and dignified return of Nigerian migrants.
“Kano Operations Office, participated in the reception of 139 Nigerian returnees from Agadez, Niger Republic. The returnees were transported via Sky Mali flights from Agadez, Niger Republic, and arrived at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) on Tuesday, 29th July, 2025,” NEMA said.
The agency explained that the returnees comprised 22 male and 52 female adults, as well as 33 male and 32 female children.
The ICIR reports that for years, Nigeria’s northern borders with the Niger Republic have remained notoriously porous, making cross-border movement both frequent and largely unregulated.
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.
But Musa disagrees.
“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.
Recall that The ICIR reported in 2024 that citizens of Niger and Nigeria travel with little to no documentation between the two nations.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.