Bandits have kidnapped the senior brother of controversial Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi.
Gatekeepers News reports that Gumi, who is known for defending bandits and always insisting that they are not criminals after several meetings with them, disclosed that a ransom has been demanded in exchange for his brother’s freedom.
The cleric during an interview with some journalists in Gusau, Zamfara State, Northwestern Nigeria, solicited the release of his brother, saying he had also been a victim of the bandits on several occasions.
“Also in our mosque, we have paid a ransom. Even now, somebody is asking me to assist him to pay the ransom. Our family driver who happens to be our relative, his son, a private soldier, was killed by bandits. So now I can support such people?” Gumi said.
The cleric claimed he has stopped meeting with bandits for his safety, saying his efforts with them have been sabotaged recently.
Gumi alleged that the people calling for his arrest are behind the banditry in the northern zone of the country, adding that the moves he made were his own way of preventing banditry.
He noted that it is a constitutional right for someone to express his views.
“They are clowns, they don’t know anything about the Nigerian society, they don’t know about the Nigerian constitution and liberty. It is a constitutional right for someone to express his views, so long you are not calling for violence or to harm anybody.
“These people calling for my arrest, I don’t see them different from the bandits. To say that I am supporting or sponsoring bandits is malicious. I am just trying to cure them in my own way. I am trying to prevent it my own way and I have seen how my little efforts have helped”
