The Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF has attacked popular Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi over his stance on the killer herdsmen and bandits terrorising the country.
Gumi had said that bandits were militants fighting for ethnic survival and they shouldn’t be referred to as criminals. This statement had caused an uproar, as many Nigerians disagreed with this notion.
Reacting to this, PANDEF has condemned the cleric for this statement. According to the National Publicity Secretary of the forum, Mr. Ken Robinson, it is rather unfortunate that Nigerians should be hearing such an absurd statement.
He stressed that it was high time the Nigerian media stopped giving Gumi attention. Robinson said that it is annoying that Gumi said that murderous bandits and killer herdsmen were just fighting for their existence. He expressed this in a statement released on Tuesday, February 23.
The statement reads;
“It is unfortunate that the nation should be hearing one absurd statement or the other from this man every day.
“It is high time that the media stopped giving him attention. He is nothing other than an eccentric bigot dressed in cleric’s toga. It is vexing that he would have the effrontery to say killer herdsmen and the murderous bandits should not be referred to as criminals but militants fighting an ethnic war and fighting for their existence.
“What nonsense? In a hitherto illustrious country reduced to almost a Lilliputian Republic by a Fulani president. Recall that this same Gumi said the Federal Government is aware of the locations of these bandits terrorising citizens, and even went on to blatantly demand amnesty for the bandits.
“Nigeria has never experienced the kind of nepotism and prejudice being perpetrated under the Buhari administration. Oil blocks and marginal fields in the Niger Delta have ever been mostly exploited by northerners. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has become a grazing ground for a few..
“In the face of these irking circumstances, a so-called Sheikh Gumi could imagine asserting that killer herders and bandits are fighting for their ethnic survival. It then becomes necessary to reckon that the rest of Nigeria needs to be on the alert.”
