KADUNA: Govt pardoned coup plotters, nothing wrong in extending same gesture to bandits — Gumi

RENOWNED northern Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said the viral video that showed him speaking against Christian soldiers was distorted.

Gumi said the distortion was the reason for the misunderstanding of the message he was passing in his discussion with bandits in their stronghold, captured in the video.

The cleric said this in reaction to the Christian Association of Nigeria’s reaction to the message in the video.

Gumi had said in the video that only soldiers of Christian faith were bent on killing bandits.

But reacting to his statement, which he now claims to be be distorted, the Christian religious body said the Islamic cleric’s message was dangerous and divisive.

CAN also accused President Buhari of tacitly supporting Gumi’s claim by being silent.

Meanwhile, the Islamic scholar has continued to justify his stance on granting “blanket amnesty” to bandits.

In his latest statement Gumi said the bandits had done nothing that was unpardonable adding that if government could pardon coup plotters that committed treasonable felony, there was nothing wrong extending the same gesture to bandits.

He said this in Kaduna, yesterday, noting that forgiving bandits would guarantee peace in the country, particularly the Northern region.

Gumi said, “Even those that instigated civil war, the civil war that millions of people died, were pardoned. I see no reason why we cannot accept their (bandits) repentance and give them amnesty.”

Gumi added, “You ask why do we give them amnesty but they told us specifically that they are ready to drop their arms and they don’t want to be pursued with legal actions after they repented.

“If the country could pardon coup plotters who committed treasonable offences in the era of military administration, the bandits can as well enjoy similar forgiveness even better under democratic rule.

“These people in the bush, who have taken arms; they are criminals. I wonder who is not a criminal. Since Nigeria forgave coup plotters, forgave those that killed. Even those that instigated civil war; civil war that millions of people died, I see no reason why we cannot accept their repentance.

“Since that is the bottleneck and it is only the Federal Government that can give them that leverage. Strangely, we found out that they are victims too. They were victims of profiling. So many of them were arrested and punished just for looking like herdsmen.”