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Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang has called for a coordinated regional security strategy to address the growing threat of insecurity across the North-Central geopolitical zone.
Mutfwang made the call on Monday while speaking as a panellist at the 2026 North-Central Security Summit in Makurdi, Benue State.
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.
In a statement issued by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Gyang Bere, the governor said the scale of insecurity required states in the region to move beyond isolated responses and strengthen intelligence sharing and joint operations.
Mutfwang also rejected the tendency to view the violence solely as farmer-herder clashes, saying the pattern of attacks in some communities pointed to a more organised security threat.
“The nature of attacks recorded in several communities suggested a more organised threat that must be treated with the seriousness it deserved,” he said.
He described the attacks as an invasion of communities, particularly where vulnerable residents were deliberately targeted and displaced from their ancestral homes.
Speaking about Plateau State, the governor said many displaced residents remained unable to return because the security conditions required for safe and lasting resettlement had yet to be fully established.
He urged leaders across the region to confront insecurity with greater urgency, warning that prolonged violence was worsening poverty, economic hardship and underdevelopment.
“Leaders must confront insecurity with honesty and a sense of urgency because of its effects on poverty, economic deprivation and development,” he said.
Mutfwang also called for a change in security tactics, urging agencies to move beyond responding to attacks and instead identify the sources, routes and hideouts of criminal groups.
He expressed concern about the use of porous borders and difficult-to-monitor corridors linking Plateau with Taraba and Nasarawa states, as well as connections to the North-West.
The governor consequently called for stronger intelligence gathering, cooperation among states and coordinated security operations to disrupt the movement and activities of armed groups.
He also advocated closer collaboration between North-Central states, military formations, the police and other security agencies, as well as neighbouring regions.
Mutfwang said insecurity should be treated as a collective threat to Nigeria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty rather than as isolated criminal or communal disputes.
