The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has reacted to a statement credited to the Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on the ongoing crisis caused by the activities of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria.
Gumi, who featured in a programme on African Independent Television (AIT) on Thursday, claimed that the bandits are terrorising communities in the North-West and North-Central because of the injustice meted out to them by the Nigerian nation.
He also repeated his call for amnesty for the armed bandits.
However, in a statement jointly signed by Yinka Odumakin (South-West), Chief Guy Ikokwu South-East), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South-South) and Dr. Isuwa Dogo (Middle-Belt), the Forum insisted that Gumi has only revealed his kind of person with the claim of injustice to the bandits.
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Maiharaji Altine
A Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has decried the Federal Government’s use of force in the fight against what he called a typical insurgency in the North.
Gumi, who spoke in continuation of his five-day visit to bandits’ and Fulani settlements in Zamfara State, said the huge financial resources spent in the fight against insecurity in the region could have been used to address the needs of armed Fulani.
“Such billions would be more than enough if judiciously used to address all the demands of the armed Fulani, including providing them with basic amenities, training them and providing them with the needed capital,” he added.
DSSA group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has told Directorate of State Services (DSS) that the agency was not statutorily established to act as “national alarmist or town criers” but for ensuring the security of the nation.
HURIWA wondered why prominent northerners, including Katsina and Zamfara states governors and Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Dr. Ahmed Gumi, have had an open interface with armed northern bandits but DSS is yet to arrest suppliers of those sophisticated weapons being displayed openly during such publicised parleys. x
In a statement, HURIWA said: “We suspect that there are vested interests supplying these weapons of mass destruction to armed Fulani herders also known as armed Northern bandits who have taken control of most forests across the country. There may be a game plan to put pressure on the Federal Government to set up an amnesty office for the soon to be declared repentant bandits to take