By: Ali Musa Biu
Gamboru International cattle market located along Nigeria’s border with Cameroon has been reopened after 7 years, since it was forcefully closed as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum performed the symbolic re-opening of the market on Saturday, as part of his two days humanitarian tour of areas affected by terrorism.
Located in Gamboru, a commercial border town in Ngala Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno state, the market used to be the largest cattle market in Nigeria: attracting visitors from foreign nations.
Gamboru shares border with Cameroon and also has land routes to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad Republic.
Out correspondent reports that, Gamboru market, along with many others markets in that axis was closed due to serial attacks by Boko Haram insurgents.
Teports indicate that, Governor Zulum has been on a tour of Ngala Local Government Area in the last two days and has embarked on humanitarian gestures, ehich include the reopening of the market.
The Governor was in the company of the Commanding Officer, 3 Battalion, Nigeria Army, Lt. Col. Tolu Adedokun and the Chairman of Ngala Local Government Area, Hon. Mala Tijjani, while undertaking the tour.
He expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian military, the Police, the Department of State Security and other paramilitary snd security agencies for liberating and securing many parts of Borno State which made it possible for the market to be reopened.
Zulum also expressed delight at the re-opening of the market which, for many years, was enhancing trans-border trade between Nigeria, Cameroon and the Republic of Chad.
The Governor however warned cattle dealers and anyone associated with the market never to condone or support the use of the market by criminal elements to jeopardize security successes recorded.
Borno’s Commissioner for Youths Empowerment, Sports Development and Poverty Alleviation, Saina Buba, who chairs a cattle management committee set up by Governor Zulum, recalled that before it was closed down, Gamboru market was a transit for the export of 500 to 800 herds of cattle every day to neighboring countries.
The commissioner noted that the market provided thousands of direct and indirect means of livelihoods to residents of Gamboru and other communities.
Buba’s member management committee comprises representatives of the military, the police, the Department of State Security and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Chairman of Borno State Cattle Traders Association, Alhaji Yakuba Goni thanked Governor Zulum for reopening the Gomboru Cattle Market and for supporting traders in different ways.
Zulum, who arrived Gamboru on Friday, went alongside the state chairman of the APC, Ali Bukar Dalori, APC’s candidate for Borno Central, Bar. Kaka Shehu Lawan, Marte, Monguno, Nganzai, House of Representatives candidate, Engr. Bukar Talba, Special Advisers and other government officials and party chieftains, especially those indigenous to Ngala LGA.
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