Revenge Cycle on B@ndits Is Driving Attacks on Ordinary Families - Sheikh Gumi

For the ordinary Nigerians who are kidnapped, killed and extorted in the North, one question hangs over every attack: why them? Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who is known for his engagements with b@ndits in their forest hideouts, has now explained what the b@ndits told him.

Gumi was responding to questions about why the criminals only target civilians and not politicians or military personnel.

“Okay, one confusing thing is that why is it that they only and they always k!dnap and k!ll and extort the ordinary Nigerians, not the politicians or the military people,” the interviewer asked.

Gumi said he and his team had put the same question directly to the b@ndits during their meetings with them.

"We asked them that. They said if initially when the military went they told them they are coming to fight castle rustlers, but why do they kill their women and children?

“Why are they killing their women and children? Why is the vigilantes arresting them and killing them?” Gumi said.

According to him, the bandits see the current crisis as a cycle of revenge.

“So they feel it’s a field of bl00d, revenge, attack and counter. So we as clergy, our own duty is to look stop. Let’s stop the bl00dshed. Let’s come to a term. It’s too much,” he said.

Gumi claimed that even some of the b@ndits themselves are tired of the killings.

“One of the body was telling us the bl00dshed is too much. They too are not happy. And they say we are forced to do it,” he stated.

The cleric also spoke on the funding of the groups, noting that ransom payments are fuelling an @rms race among different bandit factions.

"It is possible now, they buy we@pons more. Because there’s an @rm race between them. You know there are different groups.

“There’s an arm race. So this den has more machine guns than this. So they should fear them,” Gumi explained.

When asked who supplies the we@pons, Gumi described it as a black market operation similar to drvg traffick!ng.

“Well it’s a black market like drvgs. It’s a black market. If you have the money you get them,” he said.

On whether the b@ndits are being sponsored, Gumi said foreign interests could not be ruled out. Asked if foreign intelligence has a hand in the @rms supply, he said, “Foreign intelligence definitely have a hand in it.”

He cited recent international conflicts as examples of how powerful nations arm groups to destabilise others.

"Just recently we had when there’s an Iranian, I would say Iranian-Israeli-American w@r.

“President Trump was saying we @rmed the Kurds. The northern Kurds. We give them money. We give them we@pons to fight the Iranians,” Gumi said.

“So you see when they have interests, they @rm. If you have dissidents.”

On whether America could be arming b@ndits in Nigeria, Gumi said it is possible.

“Could it be possible that America is @rming our b@ndits? It’s possible. It’s possible. Any other foreign that’s interested in Nigeria, possibly could be behind them,” he added.