The renowned Muslim Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has maintained his call for amnesty for armed bandits troubling the North West and North Central.
Sheikh Gumi who spoke on Tuesday on African Independent Television (AIT) breakfast programme ‘Kakaaki’ on the topic: “Amnesty and Negotiation”, listed granting of amnesty to the armed bandits as part of the holistic approach to tackle the insecurity.
The cleric also claimed that Boko Haram elements are responsible for the abduction of the Greenfield University students in Kaduna.
He however said that he is trying to reach out to the abductors.
He: “I want to make it clear that these bandits said they are under pressure of the governments as they are denied all the largesse which governments from federal, states and local governments offer to other citizens. I am speaking for them because they don’t have anybody to speak for them.
The controversial Islamic Scholar insisted that the bandits are favourably disposed to accepting amnesty to stop the spate of kidnapping, killing and other criminality in the country.
Reminded that these bandits are not trustworthy as they always go back to their old ways after collecting huge ransom on the head of their victims, he said amnesty is the only solution to disarm them and government take care of them afterwards.
According to him: “we have to take this option to save lives and I believe we can turn them into “good guys” and it will be easy to use the “good guys” to suppress the bad guys”.
On why should the bandits be rehabilitated while their victims, dead and wounded, are left on their own, Gumi argued that: “bandits are not taken care of by federal, states and local governments but the citizens do.
“If you talk about the victims, where are government agencies like NEMA. They take care of the citizens but who takes care of the bandits?”, he asked.
On the threat by the abductors of Greenfield University students in Kaduna that they will kill the rest soon should the demanded ransom fail to reach them in time, Sheikh Gum said he is also making efforts to broker a truce but without much success.
“I am trying without success to persuade the abductors not kill the innocent students but I will continue to push”, he said.
While noting that no amount is too much to secure the release of the abducted students, Gumi however regretted that the bandits and terrorists use the ransom money to buy more sophisticated weapons to fortify themselves against federal government bombardment.
