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Barely two months after the North East Elders Forum (NEEF) was established, another group, North Central Peoples Forum (NCPF) has been formed.
According to the promoters of the group which was formed on Wednesday; former Minister of the Federal capital Territory Gen. Jerry Useni and former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu, the group aims to protect the interest of states in the centre of the country.
It is not clear what will be the relationship between the new organization and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the umbrella body of peoples in the north.
The ACF is currently led by Chief Audu Ogbe, who hails from Benue State, one of the states in the North Central zone.
A former Minister of State for Health, Gabriel Aduku, is the interim chairman of the NCPF. Some of its prominent members are: Senator Useni; Senator Mantu; a former Military Administrator of Kwara State, Col. David Bamigboye (rtd); Leadership Publisher Sam Nda-Isaiah, and a former Deputy Governor of Benue State, Chief Stephen Lawani.
States in the North Central zone are: (Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, and Plateau).
The zone hosts strategic industries, such as the Ajaokuta Steel plant, the Iron Ore Processing Plant at Itakpe, the Obajana and Benue Cement facilities, the Bacita Sugar Processing Plant and Jebba Paper Mill.
Useni, who is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the NCPF, said the primary reason for the formation of the new group was to help fight insecurity and marginalisation of the zone.
He also justified the emergence of the new forum with the existence of bodies like the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, South South Peoples Assembly and the South South Elders Forum.
The former military administrator of the defunct Bendel State and a Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Governorship candidate in Plateau State in 2019, added that in spite of its abundant mineral and human resources, the Northcentral had become an endangered specie with kidnapping, banditry, and other crimes on the rise.
Useni said he was confident that the forum would unite people of the zone in their quest to ensure that peace and stability were established and sustained.
He said: “Every zone now has a common socio-political platform where they meet to discuss their strength and weaknesses with the view to propounding and promoting the progress and development of the zone.
“It is therefore in this context that the Southsouth Peoples Assembly, the Southsouth Elders Forum, Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo were formed to champion the common cause of their people and draw Federal Government’s attention to the perceived problems facing their zones.
“Recently, the people of Northeast floated a body called the Northeast Elders Forum for the attainment of similar objectives. They succeeded in getting the Northeast Commission approved by the Federal Government. It is in light of the foregoing that it becomes imperative and pertinent for us as a zone to rise to the challenges and launch our own geopolitical platform from where we can draw the attention of relevant authorities on the need to address various socio-economic, political and securities challenges ravaging our zone”.
Aduku said the zone which has a population of over 25 million people has suffered serious neglect.
He assured that the new forum would “ensure the effective aggregation, promotion and actualisation of dormant and latent interests and potential of the zone.”