The National Boundary Commission (NBC) says only boundaries of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are captured and properly defined in the Nigerian constitution.
The Director-General of the commission, Mr Adamu Adaji, disclosed this in Abuja at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum.
Adaji said that the boundaries of FCT-Kaduna, FCT-Niger, FCT-Kogi and FCT-Nasarawa were clearly defined in the constitution.
According to him, all other boundaries rely on documents which the commission got as per when they were division provinces which the commission tries to interpret.
“But for others, we have tried using documents from archives with the Federal Government pronouncement and the cooperation of the state boundary committees to resolve them.
He disclosed that the commission had 86 interstate boundary disputes and had been able to resolve about 30 .
The director-general explained that some of these resolutions may not be wholly because some substantial part of it may have been resolved but there may be small segment still considered as grey areas that needed to be revisited.
He added that others being intervened on were not problematic in terms of no issues of crisis or fight but were only waiting to be properly defined and demarcated.
“The cases of Kastina -Jigawa and Kano-Kastina boundaries have been resolved including few others which we intend to commence demarcation but few others are still pending,” he noted.
In the case of international boundaries, he said that Nigeria-Benin Republic still had some grey areas and was still being attended to, while it was focused on making that of Nigeria-Niger boundary visible.
“The Nigeria-Niger boundary is not all that contentious, we are trying to make it more visible by replacing those colonial pillars that are not up to standards with standard ones and introduce more intermediate ones.
“We are cooperating very well under the auspices of the commission and its sister counterpart, the Niger Boundary Commission.
“In the case of Nigeria-Cameroun boundary, we have gone far and have replaced 1,500 pillars so far trying to make the boundary more definitive and visible.
“They are being handled in phases, comprising of Lots, we just concluded Lot five just last week.
“It is remaining Lot six to be awarded by UN of which under its auspices, called Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission the boundary is being managed,” he said.
He, however, noted that there was a trust fund provided for the management and definition of the boundary being used to fund the contracts and placement of pillars.
According to him, the commission just concluded the replacement of over 300 pillars in the Lot five, and is making steady progress.(NAN)