Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo; the pan –Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere and the Middle Belt Forum on Monday tackled prominent Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, for suggesting the extension of the amnesty he proposed for bandits to killer herdsmen in the South.
Gumi had on Sunday made the proposal as part of the efforts to tackle widespread insecurity in the country.
But the groups, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, described the cleric’s proposal as outrageous, unfortunate and truly inconceivable.
Recall that Gumi, in an interview with one of Punch’s correspondents on Sunday, called for a blanket amnesty for everybody with guns, including bandits in the South.
But the National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Ken Robinson, said such a comment from an Islamic cleric was unfortunate and outrageous.
Robinson added, “He is doing that in a country where at times wrong is considered right, and right looks wrong. PANDEF would want to say that nobody in his right frame of mind should be making these outrageous comments they have been making, calling for amnesty for bandits, criminals who, for no justifiable reason, have been destroying livelihoods, killing people, kidnapping innocent Nigerians and then making it a conduit to be collecting taxpayers’ money from the government.
“It is absurd. In a sane clime, people like Gumi should be in prison for encouraging banditry and criminality.
“But unfortunately, we find ourselves in a country where like I said earlier wrong looks right and right looks wrong,” the PANDEF spokesman stated.
Also, the spokesman for Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with The PUNCH, said, “ It takes an enemy of Nigeria to be advocating amnesty for bandits and criminals at this point. We are sorting ourselves out as civilized Nigerians and bandits at this point.”
The Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, described Gumi’s comment as provocative and unbelievable.
The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, who spoke to one of our correspondents on the telephone, said that it was even inconceivable for such a suggestion to come from a patriot.
He said “I have not seen a country like this. It is unbelievable and truly inconceivable for a patriot to even come up with such a suggestion.”
Gumi’s advice, reward for criminals – M’Belt Forum
The Middle Belt Forum, on its part, called on the Federal Government to be wary of any advice coming from the Kaduna-based Islamic cleric.
The National Publicity Secretary of the MBF, Dr Isuwa Dogo who spoke to one of our correspondents in Jos on Monday, specifically warned the Federal Government against granting amnesty for bandits in the North as proposed by the Islamic cleric which he said should also be extended to the Fulani involved in kidnappings in the South.
Dogo, who described the advice as a “reward for criminality” asked where such a proposal had solved security challenge faced by any country.
He insisted that more Nigerians would turn to banditry if government goes ahead to implement the proposal.
Dogo stated, “Where in the world does government reward criminals with amnesty to solve its security problem? Our experience has shown that bandits use the money they get from negotiation to buy additional weapons which they use to engage in more criminal activities. The huge amount of money paid to them also serves as incentives for others previously not interested in criminality.
“So, if the government buys into the idea of granting amnesty for the bandits and other criminals terrorising Nigerians, it means that more Nigerians will likely go into criminality as a way of getting patronage from the government,”Dogo stated.
The Middle Belt spokesman urged the Islamic cleric to stop deceiving himself into thinking that the present security situation in Nigeria was the same with one under the administration of former president Umaru Musa Yar’adua which made him to grant amnesty to the Niger Delta militants.
“If the Islamic cleric thinks that the two situations are the same, let him have a change of mind because they are not and let him stop making proposals that can only deepen the problem we have at hand”, he added.