If Ojukwu who started Civil War could be pardoned, bandits should get amnesty —Gumi

Popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has defended his recent call for amnesty for bandits terrorising the Northern parts of the country.

Sheikh Gumi reasoned that Nigerian government pardoned those that instigated the Civil War that cost the lives of millions, evidently alluding to the Biafran warlord, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

He, therefore, argued that it wont be asking for too much to have the bandits pardoned if the government could pardon those that instigated the War.

The Islamic scholar stated this in a statement while responding to statement of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna on Thursday.

Stressing the need bandits to be forgiven, he noted that coup plotters committed treasonable felony yet some of them were forgiven, wondering why such gesture will not be extended to bandits.

He said that those that instigated civil war were pardoned, hence there could be no reason why bandits cannot be accept after their repentance and grant them amnesty.

Gumi noted that he was misunderstood by CAN over his comment in a video that went viral, saying:

“You ask why do we give them amnesty but they told us specifically that they are ready to drop their arms and they don’t want to be pursued with legal actions after they repented.

“If the country could pardon coup plotters who committed treasonable offences in the era of military administration, the bandits can as well enjoy similar forgiveness even better under democratic rule.

“These people in the bush, who have taken arms; they are criminals. I wonder who is not a criminal.

“Since Nigeria forgave coup plotters, forgave those that killed.

“Even those that instigated civil war; civil war that millions of people died, I see no reason why we cannot accept their repentance.

“Since that is the bottleneck and it is only the Federal Government that can give them that leverage.

“Strangely, we found out that they are victims too. They were victims of profiling.

“So many of them were arrested and punished just for looking like herdsmen,” Gumi stressed.

ElombahNews had on March 3 reported that CAN had lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari over his silence on the comments credited to the Islamic cleric.

In a statement signed by CAN General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, CAN noted that Gumi’s comment is unpatriotic and divisive, and told him to immediately withdraw it.

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