Tag Archives: Sheikh Gumi

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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.

Also Read: Sheikh Gumi wants amnesty for bandits

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.”

Leading Stories, Politics

Sheikh Gumi wants amnesty for bandits

Respected Islamic scholar and cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has renewed his constant calls for the Federal Government to grant amnesty to bandits.

Sheikh Gumi is of the belief that doing so will ensure eradication of terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, different kinds of criminality especially in the Northern parts of Nigeria.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi in a meeting with bandits

According to Sheikh Gumi, the war against banditry will be fruitless unless the Federal Government grants them amnesty as it did to the Niger Delta militants.

Also Read: Nigerian Defence Academy Attack and Observations

The cleric disclosed this in a post on his Facebook page entitled: ‘Zamfara: The Flaring Of Crisis.’

Sheikh Gumi warned that military action against armed herders would worsen the insecurity situation rather than solve it.

Sheikh Gumi wants amnesty for bandits

“By 2015, banditry has replaced cattle raring that is becoming nearly impossible. Drugs were introduced into the herdsmen that are known to be illiterates or semi-illiterates.

“The reaction of the town local vigilantes (a natural reaction to any communal aggression in self-defence) pitched the herdsman against the local rural helmets and villages.

They even go into towns to the forests where they are lynch and maimed when whenever they enter markets.

“Therefore, everybody became an enemy and a target. Fulanis and other tribes, Muslims and non-Muslims were equally kidnapped for a ransom most of which goes to buying weapons.”

“Profiling of Fulani herdsmen became another motivative factor of more resistance and more kidnappings which has now led to their metamorphosis into the monster the nation is facing today.”

“We should also know that because of their educational status and lack of an effective unified leadership they have faced untold hardship at the hands of authorities where they were extorted and stereotyped.

“It has been imprinted in the psyche of nomadic pastoralists that the authorities and their town dwellers are ‘evil people’ that should be resisted because they have no place to secure justice for their cases no matter how innocent they may be.

“With their acquisition of weapons, they realized how easy it became to be masters of their abode the forest, where no authority can venture into.

“This has emboldened them to further attack people for more ransoms to sustain their newfound reality.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has renewed calls for amnesty for bandits

“Now with the prodding of the government to take more military actions of an already ugly situation whereby they were left to amass weapons.

“This is what the UN is all about. i.e., roundtable resolution of conflicts. What we are seeing is more than just criminals and criminality, yes it may have started as such but like any conflict, it is dynamic.”

“The danger we face now is ideological demagogues changing the narrative. They are trying hard to infiltrate the herdsmen.

“And we know their objectives. They want to destroy all modern governments by fighting the military and now in the recent cajoling of local populations, they have tormented before to join them in the struggle.”

“Let us face the reality, these herdsmen are going nowhere, and they are already in battle gear, and we know our military very well, so before things get messy, we need cold brains to handle this delicate situation.

“Military actions in the past have worsen the situation stimulating herdsmen resistance. Any more action will push them closer to religious fanaticism.

“It gives them protection from discrediting them as thieves and also reinforce their mobilization of gullible young unemployed youth as we saw with BH.”

“I have met many of the bandit leaders to see a way out of this gridlock. I have talked to the political class and security agents.