CROSS-BORDER CRIME BETWEEN BENIN AND NIGERIA :

Cross-border crime is a serious phenomenon that mobilizes the attention of the entire international community in general and specifically that of Benin and Nigeria. Both countries are members of ECOWAS and signatories of the protocol on the free movement of persons and goods of 29 May 1979. With the extent of cross-border crime between these two countries the texts of the said protocol established within the framework of sub-regional economic integration are violated. In fact the borders of these two countries have become a favourite place for criminal illicit and smuggling activities such as trafficking in petroleum products drug trafficking child trafficking and armed robbery. The many measures taken by governments to counteract these activities have not produced convincing results. Faced with the persistence of the phenomenon the Nigerian government has taken drastic unilateral measures that hinder the free movement of people and goods between the two countries and violate by ricochet the ECOWAS protocol on the matter.