Sheikh Gumi insists on amnesty for bandits

Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has kicked against any attempt at labelling Northern bandits as terrorists.

Instead, he wants them to be granted a blanket amnesty just like it was done for Niger Delta militants when they were agitating for some years ago.

Sheikh Gumi made the renewed amnesty call for bandits during the enrolment of a third batch of students into the free orphans’ healthcare and education support programme organised by the Kawo Islamic Foundation in Kaduna on Monday.

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He insisted that granting amnesty to the bandits was the solution to stopping the bloodshed in the northern region and other criminal activities they engage in.

Sheikh Gumi added that labelling the bandits whom he described as “naive criminals” as terrorists, will further compound “a very simple problem.”

“If there is anything that can stop the shedding of blood, it is better just like what happened with the Niger Delta militants, they were shedding blood and vandalising pipelines.

“But where they were ready to drop their weapons with an amnesty that will take care of them, I think the same thing can apply to herdsmen,” Gumi said.

“We have met them and they are ready to put down their arms, but when they put down their arms, if you do not educate them and provide them with funds to take care of them, they will go back to the same old ways.

“Still, we call for amnesty and stopping all hostilities because we know how we can deal with it peacefully,” Sheikh Gumi added.

Kicking against the labelling of bandits as terrorists, Gumi said such a move will compound a simple problem as they are mere ignorant criminals who needs reorientation.

“Labelling them as terrorists will compound a very simple problem; they are simply naïve criminals and when you label them as terrorists like Boko Haram and ISWAP, they may join forces with them which will give an impetus to real terrorism.

“To deal with naïve and uneducated criminals, it will be detrimental to us to label them terrorists; we should fight them when fighting is useful, but dialogue is the ultimate solution.”