Popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi has advised the Federal Government to negotiate with IPOB and violent herdsmen before they become religiously radicalised.
He said allowing the agitators to become religiously radicalised portends grave danger for the country.
The controversial cleric stated this Wednesday as a guest on Arise TV‘s ‘Good Morning Show’.
“Government doesn’t want to recognise that there are agitations. Even with the IPOB. If I were the government, I will go and sit down with them and ask what the problem is.
“Why are you carrying weapons against your own country? So is the case with the herdsmen. They are ready to negotiate,” Gumi said.
The cleric has been the subject of criticism for advocating amnesty for bandits and violent herdsmen.
In the interview, Gumi doubled down on his position that bandits and herdsmen deserved amnesty.
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Berating the Federal Government, the cleric said pretending that there are no agitations will not make them go away.
According to him, religious extremism is already seeping into the camp of bandits.
He said the Federal Government must do the needful before the situation gets out of hand.
“Now, the herdsmen are slowly becoming radicalised in a terrorist form/fashion. I mean religiously, and this is a bad omen for us.
“Because when they begin to come out reading religious texts to justify what they are doing, then, it becomes difficult to convince them to come out and negotiate. And I am saying this now, let’s go and get them before the evil forces capture them,” Gumi stated.
The cleric noted that tribal warfare being mistagged as banditry is currently going on in the nation.
He accused the government of taking sides in this war rather than being a neutral mediator.
“This is a tribal war going on and the government taking one side. What I see now is a tribal war. Fulani fighting Yoruba in the South West, Fulani fighting Igbo in the South East and Fulani fighting in other areas in the North.
“What you are calling banditry, when you cross to the other side, you discover Nigeria is fighting a tribal war and government is supposed to be the mediator. Government is supposed to be neutral; it’s not supposed to take sides.
“But the moment government takes side it becomes part of the conflict. And this is what I saw in Zamfara state, in Niger state and other states.
“When you say these bandits are committing atrocities, yes, agreed, they are committing crimes – they are killing people, they are kidnapping, they are raping, they are doing all sorts of atrocities. But, have you for once gone to their sides and see all sorts of atrocities that are also committed against them?
“So that rather than wielding the big stick and relying on military action, the Federal Government will do well in restoring normalcy by engaging the bandits in negotiation and using willing volunteers among them to win the battle.”