A controversial Muslim cleric alleged Sunday that the United States had earmarked him for assassination in a drone strike, listing him as a Boko Haram operative alongside targets hit in a recent American military operation against jihadists in the country’s northwest.
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, based in the northern city of Kaduna, said he learned of the purported plot through a high-ranking official in Abuja, who informed him his name appeared on a US hit list tied to the Islamist insurgency.
“I received a call from a top official in Abuja informing me that I am among those marked by the US for elimination through an American airstrike, as part of Boko Haram,” Gumi told an audience in a video address that circulated widely on social media.
“Northern leaders and clerics must speak up against these lies,” he added.
The claim surfaces amid backlash over Washington’s Christmas Day airstrikes on Islamic State West Africa Province camps in Sokoto state, conducted in coordination with Nigerian forces, which Gumi slammed as counterproductive.
“They claim to have come here to fight terrorists, but they are the actual terrorists,” the outspoken scholar said, accusing the US of fueling Boko Haram’s emergence and exacerbating Nigeria’s security woes
“Even Americans said they came to fight terrorists, so who are the terrorists? They are the ones,” he charged.
Gumi also lambasted regional elites for their muted response to insurgent attacks, questioning: “The north, you all know they attacked, but where are your leaders and what have they done about it?”
He further critcized religious figures for offering aid selectively to Christians while ignoring broader national needs, warning: “They attacked us for false claims, and they give support of a certain amount of money to Christians alone. No country will accept that. Either you give support to the entire nation, or we don’t need it.”
“It happens, and nobody is talking; they are all afraid to talk. That’s the situation we are in this country,” Gumi lamented.
The US has not immediately responded to the allegations, which come as Nigeria grapples with over a decade of violence from Boko Haram and its splinter groups, displacing millions and claiming tens of thousands of lives in the northeast.
