Newsbreak: Sheik Gumi warns US against bombing terrorist cells
Oodua group urges US to target Gumi, others
By Oluwole Saliu
Plans by the United States, (US) President Mr Donald Trump to attack Islamic terrorist cells in Nigeria has come under attack.
The opposition was voiced at the weekend by Sheik Ahmad Gumi, a well known Islamic cleric. Gumi was in the Nigerian Army. He left as a Captain. His son recently graduated from the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA).
The Deputy leader, Oodua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) Kunle Shamsudeen however called in the US to target Gumi.
“Terorism cannot be defeated unless its financial and ideological roots are uprooted. To save Nigeria, the US should target Gumi. He supportsa glorifies death and massacre of Christians and Muslims. The corrupt and irresponsible political leadership in Nigeria glorifies murderers and promoters of genocide,” the ONAC official told Irohinoodua in a chat. He said terrorism is “poduct of corruption, bad leadership, weak Judiciary” which he said are all consequences of a failed State. He said the current political class cannot resolve he contradictions facing Nigeria a country he says is “close to war.” He said while terrorists have hold the country to ransome, “their sponsors and supporters scramble to control and define Nigerian political space.”
The Islamic cleric, Gumi said efforts to attack the terrorists would fail.
He said the US will be unable to decimate terrorists and bandits that have turned Nigeria into a graveyard of pains and anguish.
The US President alleged Chrstian genocide saying it was time to stop the long standing killings.
Trump also described Nigeria as a “disgraced country.”
Sheik Gumi said in an interview with VOP TV, monitored by Irohinodua, Gumi said the blood-sucking terrorists are “listening and reasonable human beings.”
Nigeria has lost thousands of human souls to ravaging armed terrorists bent on turning Nigeria into an Islamic state. Their actions have led to multilayer chains of violence including violent robbery, land grabbing and inter-ethnic conflict largely between Fulani and Hausa which has turned the North upside down
He said the terrorists should understood and be pacified instead of adopting military option .
Gumi said “Myself, I’ve been trying to see how we can pacify these people (terrorists) and redirect them because they are human beings. They listen and reason, but if you say you want to use force against force, then you will compound the problem and make the thing dirty,” Mr Gumi said.
Gumi once visited the terrorists in the forest where he dined and ate with them. He had consistently called on the Nigerian authorities to negotiate with the bandits.
Gumi said “If they (the US army) can cure and eliminate the terrorists, I will welcome them. But I know they cannot. They have fought for 20 years in Afghanistan, but they could not finish them. In Syria now, it is the same thing,” Mr Gumi explained.
He cautioned the US not to attack the terrorists. He said “These terrorists you see, it is not easy to come and drop bombs here and there and think you will finish them, because they have infiltrated the society. It is going to cause more damage. More Muslims and Christians will be killed if America drops a bomb in Nigeria.”
