PANDEF Condemns Sheikh Gumi's Position On Herdsmen, Bandits

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) on Tuesday condemned popular Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi for referring to killer herdsmen and bandits as militants fighting for ethnic survival.

The PANDEF expressed surprise that Gumi had the effrontery to say that killer herdsmen and murderous bandits should not be referred to as criminals. The group describe the cleric’s position as annoying in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson.

The statement read, “It is unfortunate that the nation should be hearing one absurd statement or the other from this man every day.

“It is high time that the media stopped giving him attention. He is nothing other than an eccentric bigot dressed in a cleric’s toga. It is vexing that he would have the effrontery to say killer herdsmen and the murderous bandits should not be referred to as criminals but militants fighting an ethnic war and fighting for their existence.

“What nonsense? In a hitherto illustrious country reduced to almost a Lilliputian Republic by a Fulani president. Recall that this same Gumi said the Federal Government is aware of the locations of these bandits terrorising citizens and even went on to blatantly demand amnesty for the bandits.

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“Nigeria has never experienced the kind of nepotism and prejudice being perpetrated under the Buhari administration. Oil blocks and marginal fields in the Niger Delta have ever been mostly exploited by northerners. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has become a grazing ground for a few.”