The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the Federal Government to detain Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, an important Islamic cleric who has long supported the atrocities committed by bandits and other marauders in Northern Nigeria.
The group made the plea in the aftermath of the mounting death toll on an ill-fated Kaduna-bound train from Abuja that was ambushed by ruthless terrorists about 6 p.m. on Monday.
Gumi has been outspoken as a “bandits’ sympathiser” over the years, according to HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, including demanding blanket amnesty for daredevil bandits and venturing into the forests of Zamfara, Katsina, and Niger State to hold discussions with the dreaded bandits, turning the North-West zone into another place of sorrow, tears, and blood.
The rights group also stated that the declaration of bandits as terrorists by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, as gazetted by the Federal Government in January 2022 in response to an order by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was insufficient.
According to the organization, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), should go even farther and list “bandits’ sympathisers” like Gumi in his gazette.
Recall that the federal and state governments have confirmed the deaths of at least eight of the 398 passengers who boarded the ill-fated Kaduna-bound train from Abuja, while 28 are still hospitalized and numerous others remain unaccounted for.
The data were corroborated by Samuel Aruwan, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, who also revealed that 398 people purchased tickets, but only 362 were validated, according to the manifest received from the Nigerian Railway Corporation.
On Monday evening, terrorists detonated a bomb on the train, killing dozens of passengers and injuring many more. Terrorists bombed a train and rail tracks along the same Kaduna-Abuja route in October 2021, months after the latest attack. Last Saturday, the marauders stormed Kaduna International Airport, preventing a passenger plane from departing and killing an air traffic controller.
With over six military divisions, Kaduna is thought to be Nigeria’s military citadel, yet the state has sustained horrifying casualties as a result of bandit and terrorist strikes in the last two years. Terrorists killed 937 people in 2020, according to Governor Nasir el-annual Rufai’s security report, while 1,972 people were kidnapped. In 2021, 3,348 citizens were kidnapped, with 1,192 killed by marauders, according to the report.
HURIWA slammed the Buhari administration for treating the country’s deteriorating security situation in Kaduna and elsewhere with child gloves.
Gumi requested amnesty for the murderous bandits and threatened that they were getting anti-aircraft missiles in a PUNCH interview dated February 14, 2021, according to the group, which was validated when the militants shot down a Nigerian Air Force fighter plane in Zamfara woodland last July.
Gumi, in the interview, had said, “In fact, they (bandits) are doing most of the kidnappings to acquire weapons. They are now trying to buy missiles, anti-aircraft missiles. This is already developing into a full-blown insurgency.”
“Offer them (bandits) amnesty. When you offer them amnesty, they drop their weapons. Amnesty, which means they should not be chased with the law; they should not be taken to court. They should be asked to drop their weapons and given protection from the law,” the controversial cleric had added.
In the wake of the terrorist assaults in Kaduna, HURIWA’s Onwubiko called on security services to cease playing the tribe game and quickly arrest Gumi for questioning.
He said, “Twice, moving trains were attacked by terrorists. Right now, terrorists are bombarding train stations in Kaduna. The airport in Kaduna which is rated as international was taken over by terrorists.
“Interestingly, President Buhari sees nothing wrong in maintaining his nepotistic appointments in all national security architectures made up of Northern Muslims and mostly Fulanis. The President is not perturbed about prison breaks and the fact that terrorists hitherto detained have largely escaped even as the same government releases terrorists of the Boko Haram genre under the guise of amnesty while these attacks keep heightening.
“The continuous granting of amnesty to terrorists is the cause of the increasing spate of terrorist attacks on Nigerians.
“It is altogether befuddling that Gumi, an alleged notorious bandits’ sympathizer, has been left to roam around freely negotiating with the terrorists and telling the Central Bank of Nigeria to pay the insurgents as seen in a PUNCH report dated May 5, 2021.
“Whereas, anybody associated with the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu; and Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho; including those who made phone calls to them have been detained by the Department of State Services.
“The Buhari tenure must be fair and put away ethnic sentiments. Gumi and those terrorists he was at a time defending vigorously should be clamped down on immediately by security agencies.
“Why is Buhari still keeping the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who was caught severally on tapes endorsing Islamic jihadists and Taliban? Nigeria is in the brink and the President must act dispassionately as evil is emboldened in the face of tolerance.”
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