* Kicks against terrorists tag on bandits
Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has again kicked against labeling northern bandits as terrorists, seeking instead a blanket amnesty akin to the deal brokered with the Niger Delta militants.
Sheikh Gumi made the renewed amnesty call during the enrolment of a third batch of students into the free orphans’ healthcare and education support programme organised by the Kawo Islamic Foundation in Kaduna on Monday, insisting that granting amnesty to the bandits is the solution to stopping the bloodshed and their criminal activities in the North.
Gumi added that labeling the bandits – whom he described as “naive criminals” – as terrorists will further compound “a very simple problem.”
“If there is anything that can stop the shedding of blood, it is better just like what happened with the Niger Delta militants, they were shedding blood and vandalising pipelines, but where they were ready to drop their weapons with an amnesty that will take care of them, I think the same thing can apply to herdsmen,” Gumi said.
“We have met them and they are ready to put down their arms, but when they put down their arms, if you do not educate them and provide them with funds to take care of them, they will go back to the same old ways.
“Still, we call for amnesty and stopping all hostilities because we know how we can deal with it peacefully,” Sheikh Gumi added.
Gumi (left) seen delivering packages to bandits
Kicking against the labelling of bandits as terrorists, Gumi argued that doing so will compound a simple problem, as they are mere ignorant criminals requiring reorientation.
“Labelling them as terrorists will compound a very simple problem; they are simply naïve criminals and when you label them as terrorists like Boko Haram and ISWAP, they may join forces with them which will give an impetus to real terrorism.
“To deal with naïve and uneducated criminals, it will be detrimental to us to label them terrorists; we should fight them when fighting is useful, but dialogue is the ultimate solution.”