Ahmad Gumi, a controversial Islamic cleric, has urged the Bola Tinubu administration to contemplate offering amnesty to the terrorists responsible for escalating violence across the country.
During a Twitter Space session hosted by DailyTrust on Wednesday, the Kaduna-based cleric drew parallels with former President Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s decision to grant amnesty to militants who were involved in sabotaging oil installations in the Niger Delta.
Gumi emphasized that if amnesty was effective in quelling militancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, it could potentially foster lasting peace in the northern regions affected by insurgency and banditry.
Gumi said: “The change that I would recommend is that there should be a strong committee about it. The same way there was a similar thing happening in the Niger-Delta, whereby militants that were attacking foreigners and our military, and killing policemen, all these happened no more when the (former) president decided to give them amnesty… and it worked,” Gumi said.
“Niger-Delta is relatively peaceful (today). And these warlords are now the ones guarding our pipelines, and they are living their lives normally. A similar version, we can do with these bandits.
“The common factor is that the Niger-Delta militants were vandalising our petroleum which is a good source of national income but also the herdsmen militants are stopping people from farming. Farming is also a very important source of our GDP. And I see that comparisons the way we deal with the Niger Deltans to also deal with these people the same way.”
He also said that there was a time when the bandits complained that after they fulfilled their own end of the bargain, the government failed on its own by digging borehole water for their community.
“Some people are very pessimistic about it, that it was tried in Katsina and Zamfara states but it failed. I would tell you that it was not wholeheartedly executed because when we went to one camp, the bandits were telling us in front of government officials that they had fulfilled all ten conditions (given to them by the federal government)…and yet the government has not fulfilled its own which is a borehole they requested.”
“And for me that has been in direct contact with them, in the presence of our authorities. I know you know that authorities are aware. Now, I know this can get to Bola Tinubu to let him understand. Look a lot of Nigerians have been saying that we need a non-kinetic approach to this problem because it is socio-economic things in it… if you say you will use the military is like killing a fly with a hammer. It will just worsen it and cause a lot of collateral damage that is avoidable,” he added.
The controversial preacher also frowned at the recent list of terrorism financiers released by the federal government.
