President Muhammadu Buhari has made known the reason behind the partial closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin Republic at Seme in Lagos.

The border has been closed for eight days now, with reports saying that the closure could last for 28 days.

Buhari on Wednesday said the Seme border was partially closed to nip smuggling activities the bud.

Buhari said this when he met Patrice Talon, his Beninois counterpart, on the sidelines of the seventh Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD7), in Yokohama, Japan

Buhari averred that smuggling was undermining his administration’s agricultural policies.

Talon, According to Femi Adesina, special adviser to the preisdent on media and publicity, said the closure had inflicted pain and suffering on Beninoise people.

“Now that our people in the rural areas are going back to their farms, and the country has saved huge sums of money which would otherwise have been expended on importing rice using our scarce foreign reserves, we cannot allow smuggling of the product at such alarming proportions to continue,” Buhari was quoted to have said.

According to the president, the closure was give Nigeria’s security forces ample time come up with a strategy that would forestall the dangerous trend and its ripple effects.

He also assured that he would reconsider reopening in the “not too distant” future adding that a meeting will be held with the presidents of Benin and Niger Republic.