Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, has revealed that bandits in the North told him that their attacks on civilians are a response to the killing of their own family members by security forces and vigilantes.
Naija News reports that the cleric, who has held several meetings with bandit groups in their camps, spoke in an interview when asked why ordinary Nigerians, rather than politicians and soldiers, bore the brunt of the attacks.
According to The Sun, the interviewer asked, “Okay, one confusing thing is that why is it that they only kidnap and kill and extort ordinary Nigerians, not the politicians or the military people.”
Responding, Gumi said he and his team had put the same question directly to the bandits during their meetings with them.
“We asked them that. They said that initially, when the military went, they told them they were 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 blood, revenge, attack and counter. So we as clergy, our own duty is to look stop. Let’s stop the bloodshed. Let’s come to a term. It’s too much,” he said.
Gumi claimed that even some of the bandits themselves are tired of the killings.
“One of the body was telling us the bloodshed 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 fueling an arms race among different bandit factions.
“It is possible now, they buy weapons more. Because there’s an arm 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 weapons, Gumi described it as a black market operation similar to drug trafficking.
“Well it’s a black market like drugs. It’s a black market. If you have the money you get them,” he said.
On whether the bandits are being sponsored, Gumi said foreign interests could not be ruled out.
Asked if foreign intelligence has a hand in the arms 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 war.
“President Trump was saying we armed the Kurds. The northern Kurds. We give them money. We give them weapons to fight the Iranians,” Gumi said.
He stated, “So you see when they have interests, they arm. If you have dissidents.”
On whether America could be arming bandits in Nigeria, Gumi said it is possible.
“Could it be possible that America is arming our bandits? It’s possible. It’s possible. Any other foreign that’s interested in Nigeria, possibly could be behind them,” he added.
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