Renowned Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has said greater progress could have been made in addressing banditry in northwestern Nigeria if more Islamic scholars had been deployed to engage and preach to the armed groups.
Gumi made the remarks in a post on his official Facebook page on Wednesday.
He argued that sustained religious engagement could have complemented the government’s security operations and, in some situations, reduced reliance on a predominantly kinetic approach.
According to the cleric, many bandits are products of the same ignorance, deprivation and social neglect that have contributed to the persistence of the crisis.
“Since 2021 up until now, almost six years since we began preaching to bandits, one cannot help but imagine what could have been achieved if many credible Islamic scholars had been systematically deployed to engage bandits across the North-West.
“The aim is to teach the bandits the sanctity of human life, the inviolability of people’s property, and the Islamic prohibition of killing and oppression.
“People are the victims of their own prejudice,” he wrote.
