With increasing smuggling and importation of arms and ammunition through its land borders, Nigerian government shut its borders in 2019 to control illegal arms’ importation and smuggling with a view to promoting national security and grow local economy. While ‘border drill’ task force was set up with reported successes, scholars are yet to probe how border closure and securitization of transport corridors contributes to renegotiation of spaces and transport routes between smugglers and security agents and how such affects local economy. Using exploratory design executed with qualitative tools (Indepth interviews and participant observation) of data collection, we collected data from smugglers, security agents and traders of smuggled rice in Saki, a border community to Benin Republic in Oyo State. Findings show that despite the border closure, smugglers of rice have adapted new strategies of using ‘Okada’ to transport smuggled rice through newly created forest routes. With complex smuggling structure, which involve agents of the State (security agents), smugglers are able to negotiate their passages at security check points. They adapted new strategies of using slangs, symbolic significations and mobile communication to inform their members and sidestep security points. The study foregrounds how public policies influence creation of alternative smuggling routes, emergence of new trading partners and the deployment of digital technology to circumvent border securitization.

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Mot-clé : Border, circulation, Crisis, Smuggling, and Space negotiation

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