Benue State Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia on Monday urged the adoption of collaborative and community-centred approaches to strengthen security and regional stability across the North Central zone.
Speaking at the New Banquet Hall of Government House, Makurdi, while welcoming participants to the North Central Regional Security Summit, the Governor warned that long-term solutions must extend beyond military deployments to include traditional rulers, border communities and grassroots intelligence-sharing.
He stressed that the moment differences are set aside to confront the common enemy of insecurity, half the battle is already won, adding that collaboration must translate into practical measures that reach the custodians of the land who often have early warning of threats.
Organisers of the summit, led by the Ministry of Defence in partnership with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, described the gathering as a strategic effort to localise security responses to banditry, farmer-herder clashes, kidnappings, violent-extremist spillovers and organised crime across the region.
Governor Alia disclosed that he personally pushed for Benue State to host the meeting because of the historic insecurity along the Benue–Plateau axis. He argued that effective responses require confronting the socio-economic drivers of crime, including poverty and idleness, alongside improved intelligence-sharing and community engagement.
Framing the stability of the North Central as vital to national welfare, the Governor highlighted the region’s role in food production and mineral resources, warning that insecurity there threatens food security and supply chains nationwide. “When the North Central is insecure, it is not only our problem, the whole country feels it on its dining table,” he said.
He appealed to delegates to ensure the summit produces durable institutional outcomes rather than mere speeches, urging the implementation of operational recommendations that can outlast individual administrations. Governor Alia also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to tackling insecurity and called on all participants to align with the summit’s objectives.
