By Dotun Akintomide
Gumi: Grant Blanket Amnesty to Bandits like you did to Niger Delta militants
Clark: Your Comparism ‘Criminal, Unconscionable’
The controversial call by the Kaduna-based cleric Sheik Abubakar Gumi, asking the federal government to grant ‘blanket amnesty’ to bandits has been discombobulating for many Nigerians, including elder statesman and Chairman of Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark.
Gumi had compared the bandits terrorizing the Nigeria’s Northwest to the militants in the Niger Delta, who are agitating against deprivation in the oil-rich region despite the country benefiting from petrodollars derived from resources in the region.
The Muslim scholar and cleric who met on Friday with suspected bandits in Niger state over the abduction of students from Government Science College, Kagara, had claimed bandits copied the kidnapping template from Niger Delta militants.
He asked the Nigerian government to extend the same amnesty it granted the Niger Delta militants in 2009 to the notorious bandits.
Gumi who spoke after his meeting with the bandits said: “The outcome of the meeting was very positive because you have a warring faction saying that they have complaints and grievances which are very simple. There is hope that we can resolve this.
“I appeal to the government and recommend that government should do to them exactly what they did to the Niger delta militants and give them a blanket amnesty. Then if anybody will continue we will deal with him,” the cleric known for his romance with bandits said.
However, PANDEF leader, Clark viewed this differently as he said it is “criminal and unconscionable” to compare Niger Delta militants “who are exposed to all kinds of illnesses and deprivations, as a result of oil exploration, to murderous, bloodthirsty villains, who have taken up arms against the state, using different names like Boko Haram, bandits, killer herdsmen, kidnappers.”
The PANDEF leader, while speaking with journalists in Abuja, noted that Gumi and others supporting his controversial argument, seem to be ignorant and envious of the Amnesty granted the Niger Delta militants by late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in August 2009.
He said rather than use oil proceeds from the Niger Delta for the good of all by developing their region, Northern elites “use it for and on themselves, for their selfish purposes – hence the emergence of Almajiris, Boko Haram and AK-47 herdsmen.”
Clark argued that the grievances of the Niger Delta youths were and still are, against the government, and against the oil companies, which have refused to develop their areas of operation, but prefer to fly their people from Lagos to perform their job at the rigs in the creek, and fly them back to Lagos at the end of each working day.
According to him, some Nigerians who live outside the Niger Delta, who are not affected by the pollution in the Niger Delta, but whose lifestyle are supported and sustained by the resources of the Niger Delta behave like imperialists who live by the proceeds of the colonised.
“Unfortunately, such wealthy Nigerians, particularly from the North, rather than using these proceeds for the good of all by developing their region, use it for and on themselves, for their selfish purposes – hence the emergence of Almajiris, Boko Haram and AK-47 herdsmen,” he declared.
He, therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to restore peace and trust to the country, adding that it is rather unfortunate to see the Northern governors in a confused state, making contradictory propagandist statements without facing the realities.
Clark, however, urged Nigerians to settle religious and political differences and salvage the country, while also faulting the Northern Governors for failing to address the intrusion of herdsmen to their states through the nation’s Northern borders.
His words: “I repeat, they do not need the federal government’s assistance to build grazing reserves for these dangerous species of herdsmen, who we understand, are immigrants from other African Countries like Libya as stated by President Muhammadu Buhari, sometime ago.
He said: ”These same northern governors, who are so authoritative of their position decided to move the dehumanised youths called the Almajiri from their state of residence to their state of origin, particularly at a time when they should have taken proper care of them as a result of the hardship and hunger caused by the COVID-19, at a time when the generous society used to give them money and food freely, but were confined to their houses, due to the lockdown and these young innocent Nigerian boys wandered on the streets aimlessly, without anyone attending to them.”
