ISLAMIC Cleric Ahmad Gumi has advised the government to jettison the ongoing military campaign against banditry in the North-West, saying the terrorists told him they have developed escaped routes from aerial bombardments.
“What you may not hear is that the bandits over the years have developed escape routes from aerial bombardments. They told us, ‘you can only kill our women and children with your attacks,” The Punch quoted him to have stated in an article on Friday.
Gumi, an advocate of amnesty for the terrorists, said the criminals would escape to another state if they felt too much military heat in Zamfara.
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He cited an example of one of them who recently escaped through densely grown maize plantations with the help of villagers.
“Just yesterday, two contingents of banditry victims came to me that their loved ones were abducted by bandits in Kaduna suburbs – Rigachukun and Keke.
“An escapee engineer in the later said when he overheard and understood that they were strangers in the area as they were calling the locals to lead them, that gave him the courage to slip through densely grown maize plantations to escape.
“The point is that, if Zamfara is on fire for them, it goes without saying that they will migrate to other areas. So, is the whole of Nigeria going to be under lock-up incommunicado?”
He said that the only solution to the menace of banditry in the country was good policing through intelligence gathering and engagement of the local herdsmen.
He also called for rehabilitation, reconciliation, and reparation of all victims of banditry.
This is coming after the cleric declared on Monday that bandits are going nowhere, no matter the effort of the military except they were given amnesty.
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