Insecurity: Gumi Says Bandits Require Money, Land Compensation

By Akinwale Kasali

Controversial Islamic Cleric and Self Acclaimed Bandits- Negotiator, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has warned that for the killings by Bandits to end, they must be compensated monetarily and given land.

Gumi took his advocacy for bloodletting-bandits to this new dimension, stressing that the Bandits have refused to end hostilities  because they were not given land and “enough money”.

Speaking further, the Medical Doctor-turned Islamic Cleric said that past attempts “to broker peace” with the bandits failed because they were not compensated “with lands or cattle or money big enough to help halt hostilities.”

He added 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.”

Gumi took to his Facebook page on Tuesday, in a live streaming, disclosing that to pacify the Bandits, it is only through religion the Bandits can be pacified to embrace peace.

It would be recalled that  Gumi had likened the Bandits to the Niger Delta agitators, admonishing the Federal Government to create a Federal Ministry for Bandits to address their grievances and that of killer Fulani herders, just as the Niger Delta Ministry was created by Late former President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, had  openly rubbished the idea, saying and admitting that Fulanis are the bandits killing and kidnapping Nigerians, and  deserve no amnesty whatsoever.

Nigerians on social media have called on the President Buhari Government to arrest Sheikh Gumi who has consistently maintained his stance on amnesty for bandits.

His position and stance on the Bandits have infuriated Nigerians, who have continually lambasted the Federal Government of aiding Gumi and encouraging him.

Gumi’s position on banditry, kidnapping, and secession has once again attracted the outrage of Nigerians online, many of whom asked why he had yet to be detained or at least invited for questioning by security operatives.

According to Lekan Joseph, a social commentator, “It is now visible to the blind and audible to the deaf that Gumi is a merchant of banditry, looking for every means possible to sell his evil merchandise; but it will never be well with him.”

Ntwan Kilobas Elisha posted, “If we had a responsible Government, this man can’t be moving freely and making these kinds of irresponsible statements.”