ZAMFARA: Bandits have ‘turned into insurgents’, says Sheikh Gumi after forest visit

* Dialogue is the only option to end the menace – Cleric

FOLLOWING a visit to bandits in the forests on Tuesday, Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi has said that banditry in the state has escalated into insurgency.

Gumi, who was seen in a picture in a dialogue with the bandits, noted that they “have completely turned into insurgents following the bad treatment from the people of the state.”

The cleric made this known on Thursday when he briefed Governor Bello Matawalle at the Government House.

 “In most of the bandits and Fulani camps we have visited in Zamfara, I come to understand that, what is happening in the state is nothing but an insurgency,” he said.

Gummi maintained that most of the bandits he saw during his visit to Zamfara forests were only carrying weapons and attacking people because of persistent attacks and harassment from the vigilante group known as the Yansakai.

He, however, appealed to governments at all levels to embrace dialogue with the bandits and other insurgents in the country, expressing optimism that “dialogue is the only option to end the menace”.