Ahmad Gumi, a controversial Islamic preacher, says he has stopped mediating for armed bandits after the court declared them terrorists.
According to a report by Premium Times, Mr Gumi spoke on Wednesday in Kaduna with newsmen making his new position on the bandits’ situation known.
He had visited bandits in the forests of Zamfara and Niger states, provided medical treatment to them, and urged the federal government to offer them a blanket amnesty similar to that granted to terrorists in the Niger Delta.
Before Mr Gumi launched his campaign, the Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, and his counterpart in Katsina, Aminu Masari, had engaged in dialogue with bandits in their respective states.
However, after the method failed to eliminate the threat, the governors authorized military action against the outlaws.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and his Niger State colleague, Abubakar Sani, have repeatedly opposed negotiation with the outlaws.
Mr Gumi had said his efforts in that campaign were for the sake of peace and economic prosperity of Nigeria, but lamented that the efforts have been sabotaged.
WITHIN NIGERIA had earlier reported how the Federal High Court in Abuja declared the activities of bandits’ groups as acts of terrorism.
The ruling fueled calls for the federal government to label the bandits terrorizing the North-western and North-central regions as terrorists.
Mohammed Abubakar, the Federation’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), had filed an ex-parte plea seeking to prohibit the heinous acts of ‘bandits’ who have waged a relentless war on ordinary Nigerians in the North-west and North-central States.
The bandits have been ruthless in kidnapping and murdering their captives in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, and Sokoto states.
Gumi’s new position
And now with the declaration of the bandits as terrorists, Mr Gumi said it will be dangerous for him to continue to engage the bandits.
He told newsmen that “since the federal government has declared them terrorists, I don’t have anything to do with them anymore.
“I will not like to expose myself to danger again and to put a spotlight on myself unnecessarily,” the cleric said.
“I have tried all I could do to admonish the nation on the best way to do it, but it seems my advice has fell (fallen) on deaf ears.”
The cleric in previous media interviews had advised the federal government to grant amnesty to the bandits and to establish a ‘federal ministry of nomadic affairs’ which will address the grievances and complaints of Fulani cattle herders.
But from now, Mr Gumi said he would be a “spectator in the crisis”.
“I have endangered my life for peace by going to the forest and engaged the bandits. Among them there are rock bandits, they are dangerous, armed ready to fire.
“It is dangerous, still we risked our lives to see that we bring peace to this nation. Because somebody has to take that risk and we took it and thanked God we came out safely and knowledgeable, knowing how to come about this issue.”
Mr Gumi said “Maybe in the future when the political situation changes for better, we can do it again so that there will be peace, harmony and tranquility in the country.”