Kaduna Killings: ‘I need the government’s support before I can do anything’ – Sheikh Gumi

Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, has urged the Nigerian government to take his advice and grant amnesty to bandits for them to lay down their arms.

Gumi was reacting to the killing of three students of Greenfield University, Kaduna by bandits who abducted them from their school.

Speaking to THE PUNCH on Friday, Gumi said the incident had underscored his position that bandits were now at war with the nation.

The cleric, who was involved in the process that led to the release of students abducted by bandits in Katsina and Niger states, said he was helpless in the case of Kaduna State because the state government had not shown any readiness to negotiate with the bandits.

Gumi, who is from Kaduna State, said the only way he could intervene as he did in Niger and Katsina states was for El-Rufai to reconsider his stance against negotiation with bandits.

He said, “The situation is becoming dire and I need the government’s support before I can do anything, and I think there is a great misunderstanding and poor reading of the situation on the ground. So, I’m really helpless; I don’t know what actually I can do as of now.”