United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), in collaboration with the Katsina State Government, will organise a Northwest peace and security summit in the state.
The theme of the summit, whose date has not been made public, is ‘Security Livelihood Building Resilience and Promoting Peace and Security: Addressing the Nexus of Banditry, Extremism and Climate Change in Northwest Nigeria’.
The state government has set up a 14-man planning committee consisting of state and UNDP officials, with the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Abdullahi Faskari, as chairman.
The Head of Service (HoS), Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Commissioner for Information and Culture, Attorney-General, and a UNDP representative, among others, are also in the joint committee.
The committee’s terms of reference include liaising with UNDP and other agencies to facilitate a seamless hosting of the summit, determine and source for logistics, identify a befitting venue, and invite guests and other stakeholders to the event, among others.
Consisting of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states, the Northwest geo-political zone is bedevilled by security challenges brought about by activities of terrorists, kidnappers and rustlers.
Expected at the summit are politicians, and security experts among related stakeholders, who would come up with ways to effectively address the problem.
