North Central Peoples Forum: Middle Belt dumps ACF
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
Middle Belt leaders, on Wednesday, announced their exit from the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) over marginalisation of the region and the deteriorating insecurity in Nigeria, especially in the northern axis and announced the formation of the North Central Peoples Forum (NCPF) as an alternative to ACF.
The Middle Belt leaders, made the announcement while addressing journalists in Chelsea Hotel, Abuja.
North Central Peoples Forum lamented the various vices bedevilling the North-Central zone, including incessant herdsmen attacks, kidnapping, banditry and other forms of criminality.
The new group has as its interim chairman a former Minister of State for Health, Gabriel Aduku.
Prominent members of the North Central Peoples Forum include former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Jerry Useni; a former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu; a former Military Administrator of Kwara State, Col. David Bamigboye (retd.); and a former deputy chief of staff to the President, Chief Olusola Akomode.
Others are the Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda-Isaiah; a former Nigeria Ambassador to South Africa, Ahmed Ibeto; a media consultant, Alhaji Tajudeen Kareem; a former Deputy Governor of Benue State, Chief Stephen Lawani and Alhaji Alfa Mohammed, among others.
Addressing newsmen, Senator Useni said that similar groups exist in other parts of the country particularly in a geopolitical zone to canvass things of common interest.
He expressed confidence that the forum would unite the people of Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory, he said:
Related Posts
“The forum (North Central Peoples Forum) is also aimed at ensuring cooperation and support for the good policies and administration of the six governors of the zone, irrespective of our political, religious and ethnic differences.
“We will support and cooperate fully with the Federal Government for full and complete implementation of infrastructures, development projects situated in the zone and the involvement of the people of the zone in the national affairs of the country.
“We will promote, defend and strengthen North Central unity and the interest of its people in the context of one indivisible Nigeria and to contribute to the safeguarding of her territorial integrity.
“Consequently, every zone now has a common socio-political platform where they meet to discuss their strength and weakness with the view to propounding and promoting progress and development of the zone.”
ACF currently has the immediate-past Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, from the North Central zone as its Chairman.
READ ALSO: Audu Ogbe: Insecurity, killings in Nigeria akin to civil war
