Don’t Watch And Wait Start Dialogues With Bandits, Sheikh Gumi Tells FG
Popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said that Boko Haram would soon infiltrate the Fulani killer-herders that have been in constant clashes with farmers across the country and also involved in banditry.
Gumi also said the Fulani herders feel their existence is being threatened, so they cross borders to defend their kinsmen each time they are attacked.
The Islamic cleric spoke in an interview on Channels TV “Politics on Monday.
Told that he is seen as deodorising evil, Sheikh Gumi said there was the need for a cleric to intervene because the Fulani and those fighting them were two sides that see each other as enemies, whereas they are all victims.
On the possibility of Boko Haram using the Fulani, Gumi said the Fulani bandits were not Boko Haram, noting, however, that “We have to be very careful.
“If the pressure is too much, I am afraid they can be influenced by Boko Haram. We have seen the signs that Boko Haram is going to infiltrate them.”
On why he can locate and hold dialogue with the bandits while government authorities cannot find them, Gumi said: “They (government) know. They see them (bandits) by aerial view.
“But the military has learned its lesson. The first approach they had— when they go in and start killing— they realised is the wrong way and that they were producing a monster. They are now careful.
“The only element I am adding now is ‘look, don’t just wait and watch, go in and negotiate’.”
