Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has maintained his stance concerning the Fulani banditry in the country, stating that some Fulani herdsmen were forced into criminality because they were victims of cattle rustling.
Sheikh Gumi reaffirmed his position during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
“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,” he said.
The cleric said that although there is no excuse for any crime, the bandits were forced into criminality.
“I think it is a population that is pushed by circumstances into criminality. And this is what we should look (at), let’s remove the pressure, let’s remove the things that made them criminals because we have lived thousands of years without any problems with the nomadic herdsmen.
READ ALSO: (VIDEO) See Moment UNIABUJA Students Beat Lecturer After Exams
-Advertisement-
“They are peaceful people. But something happened that led them to this,” he said.
According to Gumi, the herdsmen-bandits are engaged in an ethnic war against other peoples, including sedentary Fulanis.
Sheik Gumi then added that the solution to the current ethnic tension is dialogue.
“It is a complex issue that Nigerians need to understand,” Gumi 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 of 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.”
We do everything possible to supply quality news and information to all our valuable readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
-Advertisement-
-Want to get the news as it breaks?-
