‘We Can No Longer Negotiate’ — Gumi Blasts FG For Tagging Bandits as Terrorists

Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has raised fresh concerns over the Nigerian government’s decision to classify armed bandits as terrorists.

He said the move has effectively shut down any remaining possibility of dialogue between religious leaders and the armed groups.

Gumi, who has previously been involved in controversial peace visits to bandit hideouts, said the new stance makes negotiation efforts impossible going forward.

Speaking in a video that has now gone viral, the cleric argued that the government’s approach could worsen the security situation rather than improve it.

He insisted that some of the armed groups had previously shown willingness to engage in dialogue, and that abandoning negotiation could escalate violence across affected regions.

He further questioned the rationale behind the terrorist designation, suggesting that it removes the only remaining channel of engagement that clerics once had with the groups operating in forested areas of the North-West.

Gumi said: “We don’t want to push them into terror beyond what they are doing now because it can get worse.

“They have shown us their willingness to negotiate, so people that are ready to negotiate, why are you rushing to declare them bandits so that you can use whatever weapons you bought.

“Before they used to catch Boko Haram and present them to the authorities in Zamfara, but now they are all terrorists.

“Secondly, the only door that is remaining is for us clergy to go in and negotiate with them, that is closed permanently.”