“They Are Peaceful People” Sheikh Gumi Talks on Fulani-Herdsmen-Turn-Bandits

The Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has reiterated his earlier position that the Fulani herdsmen involved in banditry were victims of circumstances.

Gumi described the Fulani herdsmen turned bandits as peaceful people during an interview on Channels Television programme, “Politics Today” on Monday.

The Islamic scholar had earlier advocated for the bandits to be granted amnesty after meeting them in the bush.

He said, “When I listened to them, I found out that it is a simple case of criminality which turned into banditry, which turned into ethnic war, and some genocide too behind the scene; people don’t know.”

Sheikh Gumi said that while “there is no excuse for any crime; nothing can justify crime, and they are committing crime,” but noted that the bandits were forced into criminality.

“I think it is a population that is pushed by circumstances into criminality,” he said. “And this is what we should look at, let’s remove the pressure, let’s remove the things that made them into criminals because we have lived thousands of years without any problems with the nomadic herdsmen. They are peaceful people. But something happened that led them to this.”

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According to the cleric, the herdsmen turned bandits were engaged in an ethnic war against other peoples, sedentary Fulanis included.

He added that dialogue is the solution.

“It is a complex issue that Nigerians need to understand,” Sheikh said.

“The solution is very simple, but it’s not military hardware. The solution is dialogue and teaching.

“These people are acting with natural instincts, not special knowledge. And they don’t have any ambition or anything. They don’t have a vision of the future. They are talking about existence; their livelihood is destroyed; because the cattle rustling that was going on for a long time, they are the first victims of it.

“So, we need to investigate how cattle rustling became a big business in Nigeria and how it affected the socio-cultural behaviour of the nomadic Fulani. They were pushed into criminality.”