KILLINGS WILL NOT STOP UNTIL BANDITS ARE COMPENSATED WITH LANDS, MONIES, AMNESTY – SHEIKH GUMI

Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, the controversial Islamic Cleric and self-styled bandits mediator has warned that killings by Fulani bandits will not end in the country unless they are compensated with amnesty, money and lands.

The self appointed badit-Government mediator stated that the killings are attaining an alarmingly height because the bandits were not “Given land and money”. He said this was the reason other attempts to broker peace in the past did not yield any result.

Sheik Gumi made this known through a Facebook live streaming session monitored on Tuesday. He also added that the bandits can only be pacified to embrace peace through religion. 

The cleric said what the Government had been doing in the past was; “That sometimes the Government would “just give them (bandits) a million or two million and get their weapons without even looking at how they survive.

Recall that Shiekh Gumi and his ilks had in the past compared the Fulani bandits to the Niger Delta agitators. He urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to create a ministry to address the challenges of the bandits the same way late President Umaru Yar’Adua did for the Niger Delta militants. 

Sheikh Gumi’s call has however been met with consistent disapproval by Nigerians from various quarters. Some have wondered why a so-called religious leader is not looking at the bandit issue from a humanitarian angle. They wonder why he is not more concerned about the displaced, the maimed and the dead victims of their activities. It is not known why the so-called cleric is on the side of the aggressor as against the widowed, orphaned, permanently maimed or those who lost there lives.

The Kaduna State Governor, his Borno State counterparts, serving Senators and some other prominent Northerners in particular and Nigerians in general have called on the Federal Government to disregard the cleric and his claims. They are of the opinion that Fulanis bandits mercilessly killing, kidnapping, raping and maiming Nigerians on a daily basis deserve no amnesty or compensation under any guise. 

The live broadcast expectedly got mixed reactions from Nigerians. While some urged the Federal Government to pick out some positives from what he said, others expressly rebuked the self appointed bandits’ spokesperson. Some called on the Federal Government to immediately arrest Sheikh Gumi and his goons.

The obviously upset netizens under the thread blasted the Federal Government for allowing Sheikh Gumi hobnob with anti-State agents like bandits without a consequence. Some commenters wondered if the same treatment would have been given to Sheikh Gumi if he were a Southerner. They asked why he was yet to be invited and grilled by the country’s security agencies. 

Other commenters on the thread adviced the Federal Government to stop being clannish with issues of security, while calling on relevant security agencies to declare bandits as terrorists and arrest Sheikh Gumi as their accomplice. 

Credit: Eons Intelligence