Governors Alia and Mutfwang call for coordinated, community-led security action at the North Central Regional Security Summit in Makurdi, as the Presidency launches a Community Early Warning and Early Response Network for the zone.
Makurdi — September 1, 2026
Governors Hyacinth Alia of Benue and Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau jointly called for stronger regional cooperation and community-led security measures at the North Central Regional Security Summit in Makurdi, where the Presidency simultaneously launched a new Community Early Warning and Early Response Network for the zone.
Themed "Collaborative Approaches to Strengthening Security and Regional Stability," the summit, organised by the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, brought together governors, security chiefs, and community leaders to address banditry, terrorism, farmer-herder conflict, kidnapping, organised crime, and extremism spillovers affecting the region.
The newly launched North Central Community Early Warning and Early Response Network is designed to strengthen grassroots participation in security management, formalising the kind of early intelligence-sharing both Alia and Mutfwang stressed as essential during their remarks, reaching, as Alia put it, the traditional custodians of the land who often have the earliest warning of emerging threats.
The summit adds to a rapidly building wave of high-level attention to North Central insecurity, coming alongside separate remarks from Water Resources Minister Prof. Joseph Utsev linking regional security to Nigeria's food and water agenda, and SGF Senator George Akume's keynote address on behalf of President Tinubu.
With Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, and Kwara represented alongside host state Benue and neighbouring Plateau, the gathering represents one of the most comprehensive federal-state security convenings the zone has seen this year.
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