The Nigeria Immigration Service will close all land borders at midnight on Saturday, March 18, 2023, and keep them shut for 24 hours. The closure, announced in a memo from Service Spokesperson Anthony Akuneme, will remain in effect until midnight on Sunday, March 19, when the collation of election results begins across the states.
The directive, issued by Comptroller‑General Isah Idris, states: “The Federal Government has directed the total closure of all land borders effective from 00:00 hours on Saturday, March 18, 2023, to 00:00 hours on Sunday, March 19, 2023. Accordingly, all command comptrollers, especially those in the border states, are to ensure strict enforcement of this directive.” The closure covers borders with Cameroon, Niger, Chad and the Benin Republic. During the 24‑hour period, state governments will be responsible for controlling movement in and out of their jurisdictions. In a conversation with a correspondent on Friday, the Ministry of Interior indicated that states will halt the movement of persons and goods across their borders during the electoral exercise.
The March 18 governorship elections, the second leg of the 2023 general elections, will be held in 28 states. They follow the presidential and National Assembly elections three weeks earlier, which resulted in the election of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as president‑elect. The states participating in the governorship vote are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara. Governorship elections in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo are postponed due to litigation and court judgments. Nevertheless, State House of Assembly elections will be conducted in all 36 states.
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