By Godfrey Bivbere

Nigerians operating at the nation’s border shared with their Beniniose counterpart are presently being subjected to undue harassment by security operatives of the neighboring country.

Vanguard gathered that the harassment which has been going on for some time now,  almost resulted in a riot recently after  a Benin security operative attempted to rob a Nigerian identified as Prince Cletus Ezeanyim, of  N395,000.

Ezeanyim, a motor spare part seller, told Vanguard that he went to collect his money from his customer at the Benin end of the border and was on his was back when the Benin security operative stopped him and demanded for a N5,000 bribe from him on discovering how much he had on him.

He said his refusal made the Benin security official to start dragging him to a detention camp before he ran to the building housing Nigerian security opera-tives including Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), State Security Service (SSS) amongst others.

On getting to the Nigerian side, he claimed that the Benin security officer did not only give him a hot chase,  he equally dragged  and man-handled him by tearing his shirt into shreds.  The situation which later attracted the attention of Nigerians at the border would have resulted in a free for all but for the timely intervention of an official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), who saved the Benin security operative from being lynched.

A Nigerian  among the crowd who spoke with Vanguard on  condition of anonymity explained that the harassment in the hands of Benin Republic security officials was becoming unbearable adding that they (Nigerian Businessman) at the border had in recent weeks held several meetings to check their excesses.

But the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of Seme Area Command, Mohammed Bawa, described the incident as a minor one which occurred as a result of the refusal of the Nigerian to declare that he was carrying money.