“Like IPOB, The Declaration Of Bandits As Terrorists Will Not Stop Them”— Sheikh Gumi

The Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said that the declaration of bandits as terrorists by the federal government will not put an end their activities and the country’s insecurity.

It would be recalled that Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had earlier on Friday, November 26, declared the bandits destroying lives in the North-West and North-Central parts of the country as terrorists. 

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 Reacting to the development, Gumi released a statement in Kaduna, describing the court’s declaration as a mere nomenclature that will only make insecurity worse. 

 He also lamented that the federal government had finally succumbed to media blackmail by “a section of the country”. 

 The statement partly reads;

 “I think the federal government has succumbed to media blackmail by a section of the country. It will not have any practical value because even before the declaration they are being fought and treated as terrorists. 

 “So, it’s just a nomenclature which I believe will not change the dynamics on ground. If you can remember the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was also declared a terrorist organisation, the declaration was even backed by the order of the court but as you can see, even the international community did not recognise the federal government’s declaration concerning IPOB. So it has failed to be effective or to achieve the desired results. “They have not been banned from travelling to other countries. Their citizenship remains intact, it has not been denounced. So what type of declaration is that? I sincerely hope that Nigerians will not take the herdsmen as terrorists but should regard the criminality of the few among them against innocent people as acts of terrorism, just as we see IPOB and their attacks on security agencies and other northern citizens as acts of terrorism. Very few herdsmen are bandits, if you go through their population.

 “I hope this declaration will not give the license to people to be profiling herdsmen in general as terrorists and taking laws into their hands against them. It will cause more mayhem. The declaration will not change anything, it will not change the dynamics. Already the military is engaging them. It didn’t stop them from kidnappings and killings. The declaration will not end their aggression against the society. 

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“The Fulani banditry is a socio-economic problem. We have seen it, we interacted widely with them. We told the federal government the way out. It can only be won through engagement, dialogue, and justice. That is why today there is relative peace in the Niger Delta because the government has accepted the painful reality of rehabilitating and empowering them.”