Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on Friday called for the establishment of a federal ministry to address the grievances of bandits and killer Fulani herders terrorizing the country. Mr. Gumi, a self-acclaimed intermediary in the ongoing crisis of banditry and killer herdsmen crisis, said in a facebook post on Friday that bandits should be rehabilitated like Niger delta militants, adding that declaring war against bandits will be futile.
“Some said we have tried amnesty but it didn’t work. You didn’t try amnesty but tried amnesia. Amnesty without rehabilitation, reconciliation, and reparation is no amnesty “. Mr Gumi said “ask the former Niger Delta militants who killed security men in the past what amnesty is. What stops us from having a Federal Ministry of Nomadic Affairs where their grievances and complains will be addressed?”
President Umaru Musa Yar’dua, implemented an amnesty policy that saw the rehabilitation of thousands of Niger Delta militants, who had waged a decade-long war on oil facilities across the region. The militants lamented economic deprivation and environmental degradation that assailed the oil-rich region, drawing both sympathy and condemnation from different segments of the society.
The militants accepted political and economic solutions, including the creation of a Niger Delta ministry, proposed by the Yar’dua administration and relinquished their arms and ammunitions, marking an end of hostilities that saw the destruction of oil installations and deadly attacks on local and expatriates oil workers.
Mr. Gumi’s statement came days after Kastina State governor, Aminu Masari, openly admitted that fulanis are the bandits and herders responsible for the widespread killings and abductions across the country.
In the facebook post, Mr. Gumi also slammed the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, for mocking him as a bandit’s lover, for his open support and alliance with the bandits.
“You boot licker that called me a bandit-lover! I am not one, but my country-lover, my religion-lover, my state-lover, my people-lover and humanity-lover”.
