Controversial Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, has as advised the Bola Tinubu administration to consider granting amnesty to bandits causing mayhem in the country.
Speaking on Twitter Space organised by DailyTrust on Wednesday, the Kaduna-based cleric explained that former president Umar Musa Yar’Adua granted amnesty to militants destroying oil installations in the Niger Delta.
Gumi emphasized that if amnesty could end militancy in the oil-rich region, it can bring lasting peace to the north.
Gumi said: “The change that I would recommend is that there should be a strong committee about it. The same way there was a similar thing happening in the Niger-Delta, whereby militants that were attacking foreigners and our military, and killing policemen, all these happened no more when the (former) president decided to give them amnesty… and it worked,” Gumi said.
“Niger-Delta is relatively peaceful (today). And these warlords are now the ones guarding our pipelines, and they are living their lives normally. A similar version, we can do with these bandits.
“The common factor is that the Niger-Delta militants were vandalizing our petroleum which is a good source of national income but also the herdsmen militants are stopping people from farming. Farming is also a very important source of our GDP. And I see that comparisons the way we deal with the Niger Deltans to also deal with these people the same way.”
The controversial preacher also frowned at the recent list of terrorism financiers released by the federal government.