Bandits Saving To Acquire Anti-aircraft Missiles — Sheikh Gumi

Popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Abubakar Gumi, has disclosed that bandits operating in the northern states forests are planning to acquire anti-aircraft missiles to repeal attacks by the military.

Gumi, who recently went into forests in Zamfara State, to discuss with the bandits who have killed and rendered many people homeless, said his interaction with the bandits showed that they engage in kidnapping and collection of ransom for the purpose of raising money to buy weapons.

The cleric told Punch the bandits were victims seeking justice, stating it was important for government to meet with them urgently before they become religiously radicalised and uncontrollable like the Boko Haram insurgents.

The cleric said: “These people were the first victims of cattle rustling, who lost all their cattle to rustlers because then, the rustlers were having the guns. Then when they lost their cattle, they joined (the rustlers) and they started to kidnap people.

“In fact, most of the kidnappings, they (the bandits) are doing it to acquire weapons. They are now trying to buy missiles, anti-aircraft missiles.

“This is already developing into a full-blown insurgency and we should stop that. And what we are afraid of is that if they become religiously radicalised, it will give rise to another dimension, and it will be very difficult to control. You see what Boko Haram has become.”

He said the bandits were not being sponsored by politicians or foreign collaborators.

According to him, the bandits’ sophisticated weapons were acquired with proceeds of kidnapping and not given to them by politicians or foreign collaborators.

He said: “Like I said, they are collecting ransoms to buy weapons. Look at the herdsmen in Oyo and south eastern states. They are not buying skyscrapers or riding Mercedes; they are still in the bush. They don’t want money. They want their cows, not money.

“They are doing that (kidnapping) to raise money just to buy weapons to repel helicopters and airplanes and to attack anybody that is going to attack them.

“You have to understand the psychology of these people. They are not like our governors that are stealing money. They don’t want money. For them, cow is better than money.”

Gumi claimed that the bandits have collaborators in the armed forces.

He said: “They have collaborators everywhere – in the armed forces, everywhere. One of them said, ‘Even this cattle rustling, we don’t have trailers to transport cattle to where they are slaughtered. We don’t have an abattoir.’

“So, there are people who are (collaborating with them). Even the kidnapping of the people, they said, ‘We don’t know these people; it is the people in town that will tell us a certain person has money.”

The cleric warned that if the government failed to act fast, banditry, which, for now, is largely limited to the North, would also spread to the South.

Gumi maintained that the best approach to solve the banditry problem was through dialogue and granting amnesty to the bandits rather than using military might.

He said: “These people (bandits) know how to organise themselves and protect themselves and they have started attacking villages all around. Once you touch one of them, the whole of them will come together to attack a village. They mobilise themselves through the bush. So, it is not good to attack them, honestly speaking.

“The Hausa are suffering and they have therefore stopped attacking the Fulani herdsmen. So, we should not attack them. We should just pacify them and they are a very shy people. If you meet them, they are very shy.”