NewzBy Golok Nanmwa Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, on Monday, called for a coordinated regional security strategy to confront the worsening insecurity across the North Central, warning that sustained attacks on communities pose a threat to Nigeria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Mutfwang, who spoke as a panellist at the 2026 North Central Security Summit in Makurdi, Benue State, said states in the region must move beyond isolated responses and adopt a united, intelligence-driven approach to tackling the security crisis. The summit was organised by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, North Central.
The governor challenged the recurring description of violence in the region as mere farmer-herder clashes, arguing that the pattern and scale of attacks in several communities pointed to a more organised threat that required urgent and decisive action. He described the situation as an invasion of communities, particularly in areas where vulnerable populations had been deliberately targeted and displaced from their ancestral homes. A statement signed by Dr Bere Gyang his director of press and public affairs reads that Mutfwang said many displaced persons in Plateau State were still unable to return to their communities because the security conditions required for their safe and sustainable resettlement had yet to be fully established.
According to him, leaders must confront the security challenge with honesty, courage and urgency, considering its devastating consequences on poverty, economic deprivation, food production and development. He said, “Leaders must confront insecurity with honesty and a sense of urgency because of its effects on poverty, economic deprivation and development. “Security agencies must move beyond reactionary responses and trace attackers to their sources and routes.” The governor also raised concerns over the movement of armed attackers into Plateau State through routes linking parts of the North-West with Taraba and Nasarawa states, exploiting porous borders and difficult-to-monitor corridors.
He called for improved intelligence gathering, stronger inter-state cooperation and coordinated operations among security agencies to identify and block routes used by criminal elements. Mutfwang further urged security agencies to intensify ef… By Peter Duru, Makurdi Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has called on political leaders in the North Central region to stop politicising insecurity, warning that persistent political differences could create opportunities for criminals and militants to exploit.
Sule also appealed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, and Benue State Governor, Rev. Hyacinth Alia, to resolve their differences and close ranks in the interest of peace and security in the region. The governor made the appeal on Monday at the North Central Zonal Security Summit, organised by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, held at the Government House, Makurdi.
Sule stressed that stakeholders across the region must separate politics from security matters, insisting that the continued politicisation of insecurity would prevent the region from making meaningful progress in tackling the menace. “We must develop trust between Benue and Nasarawa states,” he said, noting that political differences had created windows through which militants and other criminal elements could operate. The Nasarawa state Governor recalled that despite the alleged strained relations between his predecessor, Tanko Al-Makura, and former Benue Governor Samuel Ortom, he deliberately built a cordial relationship with Ortom after assuming office.
Summary from source