Controversial Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has disclosed that the Department of State Services (DSS) actually invited him to their office to find solutions to banditry ravaging the country, especially in the northern region.
Gumi explained that the invitation was necessary and that he had a productive interaction with the security operatives without any issues.
The minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, had on Monday confirmed that Sheikh Gumi was invited for questioning over his controversial utterances concerning banditry in the country, stressing that no one is above the law.
While reacting yesterday in a social media post entitled: “Only one person is above the law: The Innocent!” Sheikh Gumi wrote, “Last night, I got many frantic calls from well-wishers and journalists about a news item that I was interviewed by security. There is absolutely no cause for alarm.
“Yes, we had a productive interaction on how to curb banditry as we are all trying – each in his own sphere – to tackle the monster bedeviling the nation. There was no animosity but courtesy and full respect.
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“We all need, as a nation, to unite and work in synergy to achieve an everlasting peace. I thank you for your concern. May Allah continue to protect us all from all evil. Amin,” Gumi said.
In another report, a former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, has urged the Federal Government to explore non-kinetic approach in dealing with the menacing phenomenon of banditry in Nigeria.
Shittu, an ex-minister in the cabinet of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.
“If I am in position, it is not too late to use non-kinetic neasures in negotiating with bandits, giving them a promising future. Let us retain them. Many of them are very intelligent, many of them are able-bodied,” Shittu said, adding that the military spending on equipment far outweighed the non-kinetic approach.
The ex-minister said the millions of out-of-school children in Northen Nigeria is a “production factory for banditry” in the country.
Like Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, Shittu opined that the government should negotiate with bandits “for the purpose of resettling, rehabilitating and retraining them”.
However, the ex-minister said it is important that the government solve the menacing situation “to ensure we have peace, to ensure that these people lay down their arms and ammunition and add value to their own lives and for them to also contribute to nation-building”.
He said the society had abandoned the bandits over the years, arguing that the marauders are citizens of Nigeria and they should be given a chance through training and deradicalisation.