KADUNA: Reconsider your stance, grant amnesty to bandits, Gumi tells el-Rufai

*Says bandits now at war with nation

POPULAR Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has urged Governor Nasir el-Rufai to reconsider his stance and heed his advice by granting amnesty to bandits terrorising the state.

Until weeks ago when he became relatively silent, Gumi had been in the vanguard of campaign for peace talks between governors in the Northwest region and bandits terrorising the region.

He urged the govenors to embrace the policy of pacification by granting the bandits what he described as “blanket amnesty,” noting that they (the bandits) have genuine grievances.

While other governors in the region initially, even if reluctantly, bought into Gumi’s idea, el-Rufai kicked against it, insisting that bandits when caught must be killed.

The governor has since stuck to his guns despite mounting pressure from all quarters in the face of growing cases of mass abduction in the state.

El-Rufai even warned that any individual or group caught negotiating with bandits on behalf of the state government will be arrested and prosecuted.

It appears most of his counterparts in the region have changed their position on amnesty too, having seen the futility of the gesture as abductions have continued unabated in their states

But reacting to the murder of three out of the yet to be specified number of students of Greenfield University kidnapped four days ago, Gumi, said the incident had underscored his position that bandits were now at war with the nation.

He said the only way forward was for the government to end the war is to take his advice and grant amnesty to the bandits for them to lay down their arms.

Speaking on the ugly development in Kaduna, Gumi, who was involved in the process that led to the release of students abducted by bandits in Katsina and Niger states, said he was helpless in the case of Kaduna because the state government had not shown any readiness to negotiate with the bandits.

Gumi, who is from Kaduna State, said the only way he could intervene as he did in Niger and Katsina states was for el-Rufai to reconsider his stance against negotiation with bandits.

“The situation is becoming dire and I need the government’s support before I can do anything, and I think there is a great misunderstanding and poor reading of the situation on the ground. So, I’m really helpless; I don’t know what actually I can do as of now,” Punch quoted Gumi to have said.

On the students’ killing, Gumi said, “Honestly speaking, it is very unfortunate. There is an ethnic war going on, and I have been saying it. It is a war but if we don’t want to accept that it is a war, we will continue to suffer.

“You cannot predict the behaviour of people who are like that; this is the unfortunate thing and it is the common man that suffers. The way forward is for the government to listen to us, because those people (bandits) are ready to listen to us. If the government will cooperate and listen to us, I think there will be peace but we are finding it difficult to get the government’s attention.”

Likening the situation to the Iran-Iraq war, Gumi added, “We are in a war situation. As we are talking now, they (military) are dropping bombs on them (bandits). You cannot protect your children and you are dropping bombs on the enemies!

“You remember the Iran-Iraq war when they were bombing Baghdad and Tehran and they didn’t care about the civilians. When young girls (and boys) are killed like that, you should know that it is not just criminality, it is beyond criminality, it is a war.”

“There is a lot we can offer but we need the government to cooperate,” Gumi added.