A former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State and 2027 governorship aspirant, Bemgba Iortyom, has rejected the inclusion of the state in the newly announced Northern Security Trust Fund. 

The Northern Governors’ Forum had recently unveiled a regional security arrangement covering 19 states, proposing a N1 billion monthly contribution from each state to a joint trust fund aimed at boosting intelligence gathering, emergency response, technology deployment and community policing across the region.

According to the forum, the fund is to be deducted at source to confront the escalating banditry, terrorism and kidnapping ravaging the zone.

The decision was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a crucial joint meeting between the governors and members of the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council (NTRC) in Kaduna on Monday.

But speaking at a press conference in Abuja yesterday, Iortyom described the initiative as a “dangerous policy trap designed to divert Benue resources into a regional arrangement that has never protected Benue people.”

He argued that Governor Hyacinth Alia’s willingness to commit N1 billion every month to the purse despite allegedly not investing heavily in Benue’s own security architecture shows that the governor “is not serious about ending insecurity in the state.”

According to Iortyom, the planned security trust fund is structurally flawed because the fund risks becoming a regional security umbrella under which the interests of those who have sustained attacks on Benue communities would be strengthened using Benue resources.

He criticised the governor for disbanding local security outfits such as the Livestock Guards and Volunteer Guards established under the previous administration to enforce the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Law (2017).