Gumi Wants FG To Empower Bandits To Fight Bandits

Sheik Ahmad Gumi, a popular Islamic cleric has advised the Federal Government to support splinter groups among bandits as a way to end mass abductions of school pupils.

Mr Gumi was reacting to the kidnap of 139 students of an Islamic school in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State.

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Gumi in a fresh interview with Punch, said many bandits were ready for a dialogue and that the Federal government could use them to fight the “ugly ones” and end the kidnappings carried out by them.

The Sheik who had previously advocated for amnesty for bandits, said:

“We are always trying to do our best, but you see, you need two hands to shake. You know these people (bandits) need engagements from the government itself. If you dialogue with them without the involvement of the government, it is a problem.

Government needs to be proactive with them. We have a lot of them that are ready to fight the bad ones. Use the bad to fight the ugly, and use the good to fight the bad ones when you’re done with the ugly. Look at Boko Haram, who finished Shekau? Was it not the splinter group? So, it is easy.

All these agitations you see, if the government can do a splinter group and the splinter group is empowered, every man wants power and money, they will do your job. There are many ready to submit themselves. All the ones you see me meeting in the bush, they are all telling us, ‘we are ready.’”

Gwg had earlier reported how armed bandits on Sunday abducted many pupils of the Islamic school in Tegina, a densely populated town in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State.

The bandits reportedly seized the police station in the town and went round the town shooting sporadically into the air to scare residents before breaking into a private school where they abducted children attending Islamic lectures.

The mass abduction of the Islamic school students was the second to be perpetrated in Rafi Local Government Area in six months.

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