Nobody Invited Me For Questioning Or Any Arrest – Sheikh Gumi

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, has denied allegations that he was questioned or invited for examination by the Department of State Security Service (DSS) for his anti-military sentiments.

Sheikh Gumi told Channels Television after presiding over a Jummat ceremony at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna State on Friday that all of his interventions with bandits inside the forest were done with the help of the government and security services, and that he had committed no crimes.

“Nobody Invited me for questioning or any arrest, I can say that categorically,” the Sheik said, adding, “since I ventured into the forest, I went there with full security, the police, with the knowledge of the DSS, traditional rulers and the Fulani leaders, I never went alone”.

He further claimed that during his recent live appearance on national television, he made no critical statements about the military.

According to him, nowhere in the TV interview did he accuse the entire military of anything.

On Friday, the DSS said that the cleric had been summoned for questioning.

“Sheikh Gumi was invited by the Service,” the service’s spokesman, Peter Afunaya, said in a response to a Channels Television enquiry.

The spokesman added that “it is not out of place for it to invite any person of interest.”

Although the DSS has not confirmed the reason for the invitation, it is possible that it is linked to the Sheikh's recent statements on Nigerian banditry.

The preacher argues that bandits should be granted amnesty because they were "pushed" into criminality owing to government negligence.

“When I listened to them, I found out that it is a simple case of criminality which turned into banditry, which turned into ethnic war, and some genocide too behind the scene; people don’t know,” Sheikh Gumi said in an interview with Channels Television last February.

 

The cleric said that while “there is no excuse for any crime; nothing can justify crime, and they are committing crime,” the bandits were forced into criminality.