Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has claimed that he was among those listed for elimination by the United States air strike in Nigeria.
Though the claim was yet to be substantiated as the air strike was a top secret, Gumi told his congregation in a video that has since gone viral, posted on X by user #General_Somto on Sunday that he got a warning from a top government official in Abuja.
According to the cleric, he received an early-morning call from an unnamed source in Abuja who briefed him on the outcome of a national security meeting. He said the caller informed him that his name had been included among individuals allegedly marked for assassination.
“I received a call from a top official in Abuja informing me that I am among those marked by the US for elimination through an American airstrike, as part of Boko Haram. Northern leaders and clerics must speak up against these lies,” Gumi said in the video.
The claim comes after the United States conducted air strikes against members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Sokoto State on December 25, 2025. The military action followed a statement by former US President Donald Trump, who had threatened that the US would intervene in Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to wipe out the terrorists killing Christians.”
Sheikh Gumi used the platform to strongly criticise foreign military involvement in Nigeria, arguing that such interventions exacerbate insecurity rather than resolving it.
“They claim to have come here to fight terrorists, but they are the actual terrorists,” Gumi said, asserting that foreign air strikes often result in civilian casualties and worsen tensions in affected communities.
