Kaduna Based Islamic Scholar, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, has given reasons why efforts to negotiate the release of the kidnapped students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Kaduna have not been successful.
According to the controversial preacher, the shoot-on-sight order of President Muhammdu Buhari is responsible for the lack of smooth negotiations.
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Speaking further Gumi noted that despite identifying the leader of the gang, he has been unable to reach out to him because of the shoot-on-sight order of the president.
The cleric added that during his previous tours to the bandits’ dens, he met with more than 80 percent of their leaders, saying if not for lack of encouragement from some government officials, he would have met all the leaders to persuade them to lay their arms for peace to reign.
‘If we had encouragement, we would have met all the leaders. All those we met usually offered to support us to negotiate on our behalf, just like what happened in Niger State.
‘Presently, our ability has reached the extent that we can identify who is involved in any criminal act. We have identified the leader of those who took the students but he has never attended any peace meeting with us.
‘Those groups we met identified him but we could not reach out to him because of the security implication since the government gave shoot-on-sight order and then the government said no negotiation. So, I don’t want us to go into the bush and the government will think we are encouraging them.’
When probed on what needs to be done to get the victims released, Gumi said, ‘What I think is for the government to just relax and allow us to follow these people to teach them how to behave, admonish them and then negotiate so that they stop this thing. We are doing this for ourselves, not for the government or any political party.
‘We don’t want politicians to mess up our land because they will come and go while we remain here, God willing. So we are not doing it for political reasons, we are doing it for ourselves so that we stop killing each other.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK