Renowned Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said more Islamic scholars should have been deployed to engage bandits in Nigeria’s North-West.
Gumi made the assertion in a post on his official Facebook page on Wednesday, obtained by The News Chronicle.
He said sustained engagement with the bandits could have produced significant results and potentially complemented, or in some cases reduced the need for, a predominantly kinetic approach to tackling the insecurity.
According to the cleric, many people fail to recognise that some bandits are themselves products of the ignorance, deprivation and social neglect that have contributed to the crisis.
Gumi said the objective of engaging the bandits was to teach them the sanctity of human life, respect for people’s property and Islam’s prohibition of killing and oppression.
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“Since 2021 up until now, almost six years since we began preaching to bandits, one cannot help but imagine what could have been achieved if many credible Islamic scholars had been systematically deployed to engage bandits across the North-West.
“The aim is to teach the bandits the sanctity of human life, the inviolability of people’s property, and the Islamic prohibition of killing and oppression.
“People are the victims of their own prejudice,” he wrote.
