Chairman of the south-east governors forum, David Umahi, on Thursday, said the region had concluded plans to establish its regional security outfit to protect lives and properties.

The governor disclosed this when he played host to general officer commanding 82 division of the Nigerian army, Lasisi Adegboye, in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital.

This is coming less than a month after governors in the south-west launched Amotekun, a regional security outfit.

Umahi aid the forum had written to the federal government on the outfit.

“Every region has their own peculiarities and we have formed our own joint security task force and we have written to the federal government and we are putting things together because we had a joint meeting with all the service chiefs and the then GOC,” Umahi said.

“So, we discussed and agreed on what we need to do to continue to give safety to our people in the south-east.

“No one will say that he will not be part of joint security because when people are kidnapped for example in Anambra State, they could be found in Ebonyi.

“So, we need that synergy to work together to give protection to everybody and here in Ebonyi, we are among the first in the federation to start our law on internal security and that is the Neighbourhood Watch and they have fantastically done very well.

“I am happy that the police, the army, the SSS, they are not ashamed to proclaim that our Neighbourhood Security Watch has done very well. And so, we can say that we are the safest state in the country and there is no joke about that.”