Sheikh Gumi Mentions Who Should Be Sent To the Forest To Stop Terrorists
- Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi said deploying credible Islamic scholars to bandits' camps could help end the crisis in Nigeria's North-west and North-central regions
- Gumi argued that many bandits are products of ignorance, deprivation, and social neglect — factors he said have allowed the crisis to grow for years
- The cleric also proposed a rehabilitation programme combining amnesty, education, and healthcare for repentant bandits willing to abandon violence
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Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has called for credible Islamic scholars to be sent into forests to engage armed bandits through religious education, saying the approach could help end the ongoing security crisis in Nigeria's North-west and North-central regions.
Gumi made the call in a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, September 16, reaffirming his long-held position that non-violent engagement offers a viable path to reducing banditry.
Source: Twitter
He argued that scholars deployed to these areas could teach armed groups about the sanctity of human life, the protection of property, and the Islamic prohibition against killing and oppression, while encouraging them to lay down their weapons.
Six years of preaching, little replication
Gumi said the outcome could have been far better had more scholars joined the effort earlier.
"Since 2021 — 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, teaching them the sanctity of human life, the inviolability of people's property, and the Islamic prohibition of killing and oppression," he said.
The cleric drew on his own visits to bandits' camps in 2021, during which he preached against attacks on civilians, urged the groups to observe daily prayers, pursue Islamic education, and drop their arms, Vanguard reported.
He said those engagements showed that religious outreach could discourage violence when conducted consistently.
Gumi also pushed back against narratives that frame bandits purely as criminals, saying the root causes of the crisis are routinely overlooked.
"Very few people seem to understand that many of these bandits are themselves products of the same ignorance, deprivation, and social neglect that have allowed the crisis to flourish," he said. "People are the victims of their own prejudice!"
Rehabilitation alongside religious outreach
Beyond religious engagement, Gumi proposed a structured rehabilitation programme that would offer amnesty, access to education, and basic healthcare to repentant pastoralists. He suggested that those who renounce violence could also be given roles as forest guards, providing both a livelihood and a stake in maintaining peace, Nigerian Tribune reported.
He said this combination of religious instruction and rehabilitation could reduce reliance on military operations by targeting the social and economic conditions that drive recruitment into armed groups.
On the question of grievances, Gumi was unambiguous about what Islamic teaching permits. "In Islam, there is no justification at all for reprisal attacks, killings, kidnappings, and r@pe," he told bandits during the forest meetings, urging them to channel any complaints through legitimate means rather than violence.
Gumi mentions 2 politicians who visited militants
Previously, Legit.ng reported that Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi raised questions about why no Nigerian government official has engaged Boko Haram terrorists and bandits through direct negotiations, drawing a comparison with the high-level outreach that helped end Niger Delta militancy.
Gumi made the argument in a Facebook post on Saturday, July 25, 2026, citing how former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo personally entered the Niger Delta creeks to meet armed militants and returned with frameworks that reduced the violence.
Source: Legit.ng
