Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has called for North Central security committee to address various security challenges confronting the zone.
Therefore, he called for collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the states to devise the modalities and end the security challenges.
Bago stated this while inaugurating the office building of Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW), for the North-Central Zone, established by the office of the National Security Adviser in Minna.
The governor observed that the North Central region has been badly affected by insecurity, leading to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
While championing the establishment of state offices of the NCCSALW, in the Zone he advocated ” collaboration of the office of the National Security Adviser to create the North Central Security Committee, where peculiar issues of the region would be discussed with the view to addressing them”.
Bago described the inauguration of the office as a milestone achievement under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu but called for a partnership with the office of the Security Adviser to cultivate the ungoverned spaces in Niger State to boost the federal and state government agricultural policies on food security.
He appreciated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Security Adviser and the Director General of the NCCSALW for the establishment of the Centre in Minna.
The director general, NCCSALW, Office of the National Security Adviser, DIG Johnson Babatunde Kokuma (Rtd) who also represented the National Security Adviser, Mal. Nuhu Ribadu, said the establishment of the centre in the North Central Zone of the country was a critical step in the operational strategy to bring the fight against illicit arms closer to the people.
He said the new zonal office will serve as a hub for strategic operations in the region, a centre for intelligence gathering and analysis, a platform for enhanced inter-agency collaboration and a base for community engagement and awareness programmes.
In their separate goodwill messages, the representatives of the governors of Benue, Plateau, Kogi and Nassarawa states acknowledged the proliferation of illicit arms in North Central States and promised to collectively fight against it, ensure a more secure region even as they commended the establishment of the Zonal office.
