Return of Sheik Gumi

Controversial Muslim cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, returned to national radar last week with a proposal to negotiate with bandits who recently abducted some 287 schoolchildren from Kuriga in Chikun council area of Kaduna State. He offered to facilitate the release of the kidnapped pupils should President Bola Tinubu give him the nod, and warned it would be a mortal mistake on the part of government to spurn the option of negotiation with the criminals.

Gun-wielding bandits had penultimate Thursday stormed Kuriga Government Secondary and LEA Primary schools in the morning hours, shooting in the air and herding off more than 300 pupils and teachers into the forest unchallenged by security forces. About 25 of the abductees subsequently escaped the terrorists’ hold and returned home, but the others remained in captivity as at late last week. The Kuriga incident happened barely 24 hours after insurgents kidnapped some 200 internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly women and youths in Ngala, headquarters of Gambarou Ngala council area of Borno State. The IDPs were abducted reportedly while they were out gathering firewood in the bush.

The Kuriga mass abduction climaxed a siege of terror on the community and adjoining areas over recent years. Reports said at the time the bandits struck penultimate Thursday, the community was yet healing from the killing of Idris Sufyan, the principal of the secondary school, by terrorists who shot him in his home in January and abducted his wife along with their baby. These two were rescued early in February in a joint military operation. It was reportedly terrorists’ activity that warranted the relocation of the secondary school some three years ago from its remote site to cohabit a premises with the primary school situated at the heart of the town. Besides, it was only recently that bandits attacked Gonin-Gora community in the same Chikun council area, prompting residents to stage a protest over abductions of people in the area during which they blocked the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway. 

The Kaduna State Government – since the days of former Governor Nasir el-Rufai until now under Governor Uba Sani – has insisted on not negotiating release of abducted persons with bandits or paying ransom. Both governors often espoused the view that the sure way out of the siege of banditry is to defeat the bandits militarily (el-Rufai wanted them carpet-bombed in their forest hideouts). Sheik Gumi, on the other hand, is an unabashed bandit-sympathiser and advocate of dialogue with the outlaws. From hibernation, he rode back early last week in the trails of the Kuriga incident to deplore government’s aversion for negotiating with bandits and counsel urgent dialogue with the criminals – not pertaining to only the Kuriga abductees but on all pending cases. He said in a statement that he was ready to “lead a holistic dialogue between the government and bandits,” which he described as his religious duty towards promoting peace. The cleric urged the current administration of President Tinubu to follow a different path from its predecessor – the Muhammadu Buhari administration – which he disapprovingly noted refused to negotiate with bandits. He contradicted himself, though, by recommending a model that obtained under the same Buhari administration: “Government should use the same approach it used in releasing passengers that were abducted on the Abuja–Kaduna train in 2022 to release the Kuriga school children and others,” he said. It was no matter to him that the train hostage negotiations facilitated by his aide, Tukur Mamu, although resulted in phased release of the hostages upon ransom payment also climaxed in arrest and prosecution of Mamu by security agents for alleged terrorist financing.

“There are lapses in a security arrangement that allows bandits to corral massive herds of abductees into hideaways without being intercepted”

Gumi’s latest advocacy aligned with the line he had always plied on how to tackle the challenge of terrorism and banditry that has hobbled this country for many years. In February 2021, he portrayed bandits as victimised and labelled journalists as criminals for describing the activities of bandits as criminality. Speaking on a television programme, he said the media was fuelling insecurity in Nigeria with words being used on bandits; and that for bandits to surrender, they should not be castigated or referred to as criminals but rather that nice words be used in reporting them. “You are emphasising on criminality, even the press (journalists) are criminals too because they are putting oil into fire. These people are listening to you, you should not address them as criminals if you want them to succumb,” he said. Late in the same year when a federal high court in Abuja formally outlawed the activities of armed bandit groups as “acts of terrorism and illegality,” just so they could be frontally taken on by the military, Gumi flew off the handle to describe the verdict as counter-productive and of no consequence. “The declaration will not change anything, it will not change the dynamics. Already the military is engaging them, it didn’t stop them from kidnappings and killings. The declaration will not end their aggression against the society,” he said in a statement.  And when questioned on another platform as to why his approach of soft-pawing bandits had not dissuaded them from the act, Gumi said lack of enthusiasm by government was frustrating his efforts. “We are always trying to do our best, but you see, you need two hands to shake. You know these people (bandits) need engagements from the government itself. If you dialogue with them without the involvement of the government, it is a problem,” he explained.

The cleric is a famous bandit-negotiator and apologist, and he is reputed to have vast contacts among them, but his past engagements have failed to effect any change of heart in the criminals. Why he thinks fresh attempts would produce a different outcome can only be explained by his passion to molly-coddle the outlaws – and that, against better judgment that they be dealt a heavy hand. The Northwest and Northeast zones are challenged by activities of bandits and insurgents who at intervals stage mass kidnappings, and governors of states in the zones have often called for military action to deal with the menace. Barely a week into the saddle as Kaduna governor last year, Uba Sani accused some former Northwest governors of having frustrated security efforts by cutting out of a unified front forged by the states and choosing to fraternise with bandits. He added that there was, however, new thinking in the zone as the current governors had agreed to adopt a common approach and “move away from the mistakes made by some previous governors who decided to compromise the operation in the past when they started giving money to the bandits and negotiating with them.” Gumi, by his latest campaign, seeks return to the Golgotha of negotiation and ransom payment. That is no way to go and the cleric should just keep to his space!

But Gumi aside, there are lapses in a security arrangement that allows bandits to corral massive herds of abductees into hideaways without being intercepted. In the Borno case where it was reported that about 200 IDPs – some groups argued the number was indeed higher – were kidnapped, it is curious that such a large number left camp at the same time and in the same direction in search of firewood without security cover, despite the notoriety of that area for insurgent activity. IDP camps, as places of refuge for persons displaced by terror from their homes, ideally should be under close administrative and security watch. But that such oversight was lacking showed through in the fact that there was no immediate security response to the Ngala abductions, with the hostages yet to be rescued as at last weekend.

The Kuriga incident left even much more to be desired. Eyewitness accounts said the bandits came in broad daylight in massive number, with some kitted in military gear and on motorbikes, and they herded off massive numbers of abductees without being intercepted by security forces. It could only be due to failure of security intelligence that such operation was not picked up before, during or immediately after, while the bandits were leaving the scene of attack. Kuriga is apparently an ungoverned space. Though it borders the terror-ravaged Birnin-Gwari highway, there is no military formation close by, while a police post that could have somewhat intimidated bandits was reportedly relocated some years back to another community about 20 kilometres away. Ungoverned spaces provide room for terrorists to freely operate, and those operations rub off negatively on the image of the entire country. The Tinubu administration must do everything to adequately police all spaces within the country’s territory, and rescue all the abductees.