By Kassim Omomia, Mudiaga Affe, Andy Asemota, Ben Ogbemudia, Cajetan Mmuta and Alex Emeje
The activities of Islamic cleric and Boko Haram/Banditry negotiator, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has come under the scrutiny of Nigerians: Who is he? A sympathiser (of bandits), peacemaker or hustler making cool bucks of the misery of fellow citizens?

In the last few months, students and teachers have become targets for bandits, especially in the northern part of the country.

Several students and teachers were recently abducted from Government Science College Kagara (Niger State); College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka (Kaduna State); and Greenfield University, Kaduna (Kaduna State). This is in addition to the several civilians that have also fallen victims to these bandits in Zamfara, Katsina, Yobe, and other states in the north.

At the center of these negotiation-for-ransoms is the 60-year-old Gumi who resigned from Nigerian military service at the rank of Captain and moved to Saudi Arabia to further his education on Islamic Jurisprudence and Tafsir.

His self-appointed mediatory role, which appears sanctioned by Government has sparked controversies because he has on several occasions advocated for blanket amnesty for bandits despite the havoc they wreak.

Gumi has for the past few months positioned himself as the “unofficial” spokesman for bandits painting them with nice words and blaming the government and the system for their decision to make kidnap-for-ransom a booming business.

Apart from the last Tuesday’s release of 29 abducted students at College of Forestry Mechanisation in Afaka, which was facilitated by Gumi and in which some of the parents of the victims claimed to have paid millions of naira, the Islamic scholar had also advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay N100m to secure the release of the Greenfield University students also in Kaduna, in which five have already been killed.
Gumi had asked, “Five souls were killed, Why? What amount of money is too big for us to save the lives of those five students, what amount of money?”
His views about the bandits are seen by the citizens as showing sympathy for the criminals, thus promoting anger and division along religious, regional, and ethnic lines.

Banditry : Bishop Obinna tackles Gumi, Zamfara governor

Investigate Gumi
A former provost marshal of the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police, Lagos, Brig.-Gen. Idada Ikponmwen (retd.); the President of African Council on Narcotics, Mr Rekpene Bassey; a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Dada Ayokhai; a former member of the House of Representatives, Frank Ineke, among others, have joined other Nigerians calling for Gumi’s investigation over his relationship with bandits and Boko Haram terrorists.

They lamented that there was no justifiable reason for the Federal Government to be romancing with someone who has access to terrorists, adding that it was time for the Federal Government to beam its searchlight on Gumi.

According to Ikponmwen, the idea that he is liaising for the government is unacceptable and provocative to the average Nigerian.

The 73-year-old practicing lawyer said if Gumi was acting on behalf of the Federal Government, Nigerians should be told why the government is doing that.
He said: “My worries about the role this Islamic religious leader is playing in this country is smack of suspension. A few months ago, I said the Federal Government should call this man to order because his role is dubious.

“How can this man know so much about the bandits and Boko Haram if he is not one of them? Why should the government choose this man as a liaison to deal with these people? The Nigerian military and other security forces are losing their men every day.

“The bandits and Boko Haram are criminals cause havoc, yet Gumi is romancing with these dangerous elements. I think the government should deal with this man in all seriousness. The idea that he is liaising for the government is unacceptable and provocative to an average Nigerian. If truly government is using him as a liaison, then Nigerians should be told why.”

Ikponmwen also took a swipe at Gumi for suggesting that the Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN) should pay N100m to bandits to secure the release of the university students that are still in captivity of the bandits.

He also questioned the rationale behind the negotiation for the recent release of some other captives in Kaduna State by Gumi and a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
“It is absurd to have suggested that the CBN should pay N100 million to the bandits to release their captors. The government should not create room for this type of man to claim credit for anything. He should be arrested. It is unjustifiable for him to be made a liaison person.

On his collaboration with Olusegun Obasanjo- I do not approve of any such moves. The government has the responsibility to ensure the security of lives and property of everybody. Are you saying that individuals have become more effective in handling the affairs of their citizens?

“Even Gen Obasanjo, a former head of state, with due respect, is he bigger than the government of the day that he is the one now joining to negotiate for how much to be given to Boko Haram? This is absurd”.

Similarly, the President of the African Council on Narcotics, Rekpene Bassey said the role Gumi is playing in the various negotiations is not positive.

Bassey, who was also a former Cross River State Security Adviser, alleged that Gumi had gone to a Middle East country during his early education and became radicalized.
He said, “At his early age, Gumi left this country to undertake studies in one of the Middle East countries and he became radicalized. However, for me, I do not think that Gumi is playing a positive role.

Earlier this year, Gumi alleged in a video that went viral that non-Muslim Nigerian soldiers were responsible for insecurity, such a statement according to Bassey could cause religious division within the security architecture.

Although Gumi had reportedly defended himself when he said he was not the first to dialogaue with the bandits but added that he never visited “these bandits without a government official present”, such claims, according to Bassey, are deceptive because the implication is the government knows where the bandits are but chose to remain complacent.

Continuing Bassey said: “He had reportedly once met with them and told the Islamic jihadists (Fulani herdsmen) that it was Christian soldiers that were killing them and not Muslim soldiers. It is an indication of his radical tendencies because such comment could cause division within the military and create a wrong impression in the minds of the terrorists.

“So, I do not see him as a saint. I think Gumi has been over pampered. The government is not doing well at all. How can Gumi have access to these characters whereas we get the impression that security intelligence agencies do not have access to them?

“He goes to see these terrorists with our armed security operatives. I do not think he is playing a clean role. It is time for the security searchlight to be flashed at him so that he will be able to give extremely useful information to the government. I do not perceive his role as positive,” he added.

He is a pretender and terrorism sympathizer- Osagie
A former member of the House of Representatives, Samson Osagie, in an interview with ThisNigeria accused Gumi of pretending to be a peacemaker, saying his action shows that he has sympathy for bandits.

Osagie said, “Ordinarily, why I will not say he is a terrorist himself, but he seems to know a lot about terrorist activities, and the government may well use him to make some successes in the whole fight against insecurity. Otherwise, he is one man I think security agencies should be able to get enough information from in the fight against insecurity.
“Sometimes, I find it very difficult to understand where he stands, and I begin to wonder if he is their patron in the sense that he speaks for them and even attempts to negotiate an amnesty for them.
“So, Gumi’s personality is not difficult for one to understand. I think in the whole of these things, while he is pretending to be peacemaker, he strikes me as a man who has a lot of sympathy for bandits, who are criminal elements”

A lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Ambrose Alli University, (AAU), Ekpoma, Dr Agharese Osifo, said of Gumi, “I think the Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi is meddling with political matters. From various credible media reports, one can conclude that he is hustling for economic survival. He retired or was retired quite early in his career with the Nigerian Army as a Captain.”
“As the head of the Sheikh Ahmad Gumi Dialogue Committee that facilitated the release of the remaining 29 students at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State, following payment of ransom, one is vindicated on his role as an Economic Hustler,” Osifo added.

Similarly, a former presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba, has asked Gumi to disclose whether he is taking sides with bandits and terrorists or with the Nigerian people.

A Twitter user who wondered why the cleric had not been picked up by the Department of State Services (DSS) over his comments, asked Garba what his thinking was about Gumi’s activities.
In response, Garba said, “I think Sheikh Gumi would have to explain in clear times whether he is together with the bandits, terrorists or with the Nigerian people.”

Also, a Director of the International Institute of Journalism and a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Dada Ayokhai, said Gumi’s language has not been that of peacemaker but a sympathizer with the terrorists.

“At the beginning, I felt he was a peacemaker but with the role he played or playing with the kidnapped 17 university students in Kaduna, I felt bad. Again, he seems to be getting or having government support. It is indeed a shame that the security agencies are not in any way doing enough to secure the release of the students,” he said.

A former member of the House of Representatives representing Igalamela, Odolu, and Idah constituencies, Kogi State, Honorable Frank Ineke, berated the cleric, saying that Gumi must be a beneficiary of the satanic demand he is making.

Ineke asked how the sheik expects the parents to cough out such money at this financial excruciating time. He asked if his family member is there and he is asked to pay such a humongous amount of money, how will he feel?

Another former member of House of Representatives, Mr Samsom Ihiabe asked the Federal Government to urgently demand to know from Gumi how he got into his relationship with Boko Haram.
He wondered why it is only Gumi that is accessible to Boko Haram while those in Government do not know what he knows about these satanic human beings that take pleasure in snuffing lives out of innocent Nigerians.

No, he’s a peacemaker, Dalhatu, Aigbokhan
Meanwhile, a Katsina-born lawyer and former member of the Katsina State House of Assembly, Alhaji Usman Dalhatu, said Gumi is a peacemaker, who identifies more strongly with the middle course in the interest of bandits’ victims, the society, and the nation than the Islamic point of view that kicks against payment of ransom to bandits.
“I think he wholeheartedly means well. That is my opinion because we are in a kind of crisis which one cannot foresee its immediate end, going by the way government is handling it and the situation is getting out of hand daily on this issue,” Dalhatu maintained.

The former House Leader added: “I would like to believe that he is doing it in the interest of the larger society: That he has an honest intention to see that things come to a reasonable end; at least, he is a peacemaker. I cannot stress it more than that given the kind of crisis that we have in the country.”
In the same vein, a former chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, Benin Branch, Edo State, Mr. Collins Ogiegbaen, said Gumi is a pragmatic Nigerian who should be commended for the role he has been playing in facilitating the release of abducted victims. He lamented that the nation’s security architecture has failed, adding that the Islamic cleric should not be vilified because of the patriotic role he singled himself out to do for those being trapped in the kidnappers’ den.

He said, “Gumi is a pragmatic Nigerian; he should be commended for what he is doing in trying to rescue the kidnapped students by negotiating with the kidnappers. Forget about what the Kaduna state governor is doing; he does not want to pay the ransom and all that.

“You may call him whatever, but I see Sheikh Gumi as a pragmatic Nigerian, and I believe that what he is doing to ensure the release of those students puts him in the class of patriots.

“Anywhere in the world, these criminals kidnap for ransom. That is the purpose, fueling some other things that they are doing. So, for me his request that something should be paid, so that those young children, the leaders of tomorrow can be allowed to go, is pragmatic.” Also, Counsel Freedom of Information, (FOI), Mr President Aigbokhan, said, “Honestly, I think Sheikh Gumi is a peacemaker. He was not the one who kidnapped the students, so he could have been quite like many others, like our leading political elites.”

Aigbokhan pointed that, “That he asked the government to break bank to settle the bandits do not make him a hustler. He is a distinguished cleric that needs to be motivated and engaged to request the bandits to lay down their arms.”