The Chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council, and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday recounted the unprecedented challenges facing the Northern region, and concluded that, “the rising trend of insecurity have deprived democratic liberty, freedom and economic prosperity in the region.”
The Sultan, who stated this at the Northern States Governors’ Forum in Kaduna yesterday, expressed the resolve and readiness of the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council to collaborate with the northern state governors, who he said are the mouth piece of the north, especially as it concerns restoring the peace and harmonious co-existence and development in the region for the benefit of all.
According to the Sultan in a communiqué issued at the meeting, stated that the outcome of their peace meeting which held in Kaduna recently was part of other efforts and proactive measures that will bring to an end, the security challenges bedeviling the north and which over time had affected the north.
Chairman of the Governors Forum and Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, who read the communiqué to Journalists, said the forum deliberated extensively on the alarming rate of insecurity in the northern states, and noted that the region needed an integrated approach towards tackling these new realities.
As a result, a committee to find a lasting solution to the security challenges was set up with Governors of Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Adamawa and Plateau states as members.
The committee was saddled with the responsibilities of monitoring the implementation of the federal government’s white paper on security challenges in the North East Zone, adopt a pragmatic, holistic and integrated regional approach to combating crime through collective effort of all security agencies, and to adopt common policies and programmes, while building confidence among the people to promote economic prosperity in the North.
