Gumi to FG: To Stop Abductions, Sponsor Factional Bandits
- The federal government has been advised on how to engage armed bandits and degrade them strategically
- The advice to the government was given by popular Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi
- Gumi wants the authorities to infiltrate the ranks of the bandits and get the remorseful ones to turn on the unrepentant ones
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Kaduna - Popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, has advised the federal government to support fragments of bandits who disintegrated from their groups as a way to end mass abductions of school pupils.
Gumi made the comment on Wednesday, June 3 when he spoke to The Punch via telephone concerning the recent abduction of 200 Islamic schoolchildren in Niger state.
He said many bandits were ready for a dialogue, adding that government could use them to fight the unrepentant ones.
Source: Getty Images
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His words:
“Government needs to be proactive with them. We have a lot of them that are ready to fight the bad ones. Use the bad to fight the ugly, and use the good to fight the bad ones when you’re done with the ugly. Look at Boko Haram, who finished Shekau? Was it not the splinter group? So, it is easy.”
Meanwhile, Kano governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje has raised an alarm, saying bandits are converging in the forests near his state.
The Nation reports that the governor made the allegation on Wednesday, June 3 when he visited the Defence Headquarters, Abuja.
Governor Ganduje who was received by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, asked the military to intervene.
In a related development, abductors of the Islamic students in Niger state are demanding the sum of N110 million as a ransom for the safe release of the victims.
The bandits also threatened to kill the victims should the school or their parents fail to meet their demands this week.
The headteacher of the school, Abubakar Alhassan disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday, June 1, adding that the bandits’ call came in about 4:00 pm on Monday, May 31.
As the teenagers in Niger remain in captivity, fourteen students of Greenfield University, Kaduna, who were abducted from their hostels on Tuesday, April 20 were recently released.
The students were released on Saturday afternoon, May 29 after their parents said they paid N180million as ransom.
The spokesman of Greenfield University, Kator Yengeh, confirmed the development.
Source: Legit.ng
