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Gumi Hits ‘Clowns’ Critical Of Meetings With Bandits
Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has denounced those demanding his arrest on account of his interactions with bandits as clowns saying that he was not the first to have met the bandits.
Citing the governors of Kaduna and Zamfara States as officials who previously interacted with the bandits, the Islamic cleric also affirmed that all his meetings with the bandits were done in the presence of government officials.
Gumi spoke in an interview with Daily Post against the background of the calls championed by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA among others for his arrest.
Responding, to the call for his arrest on the basis of the interactions with the bandits, he said:
“Those are clowns, even the Kaduna State governor dialogued with them, Zamfara governor dialogued with them.
“I’m not the first person that started dialoguing with them (bandits). I only added value, and I find them to be religious; religion is the only thing that teaches you that blood has sanctity. So this is the religious angle.
Besides hitting his critics as clowns, Gumi sought to explain his motive, saying: “I’m trying to gather them and teach them that there is sanctity to life. They cannot kill, rape and so on. This is the addition I hope will work. Note, I never visited these bandits without a government official, but they are in the background.
“All the bandits we met were with government officials, and that is why I said those calling for my arrest are clowns.”
“My interaction with bandits has yielded instant results. When you are dealing with somebody engrossed in criminality, if you approach him as a policeman, you will have a problem but if you come to him as a pastor, he will confess all his sins to you.
“So we approach them as clergy, and they feel comfortable to vomit all their problems. Hence, we see how we can appease and help them.
“We are not approaching them as an authority but from the spiritual angle. You know every human being has that spiritual influence, and that is why we are adopting that,” he added.
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