Sheikh Gumi Defends Visits To Bandits, Says He Always Travels With Police, Govt Officials

Controversial northern Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has disclosed that his frequent visits to terrorists and bandits are not done in secrecy, insisting that he always moves with security operatives and government representatives.

Gumi stated this while speaking at the 2025 Southwest Muslims Ulama Summit at the University of Ibadan, where he defended his engagements with gunmen and criticised what he described as years of “misrepresentation” by the media and the public.

According to him, his outreach to armed groups is an effort to understand the roots of insecurity and open channels for education and rehabilitation.

“When I go, I go with the police. I don’t go alone. I go with the government. It’s not a one-man machine. I carry everybody along,” he said.

The Kaduna-based cleric said Nigerians are in the eye of the storm of insecurity and must acknowledge the core drivers of the crisis.

“The basic reason is lack of education and unemployment. These are the two evils,” he said.

Gumi argued that years of neglect created a generation of frustrated herders isolated from society.

He illustrated this by saying that if 10 people were left in the bush with cattle for a year without education or communication, they would return without human development.

“So when I understand that our herdsmen are suffering from these two, you can imagine now, if we select maybe 10 people here, keep them with the cows alone, there’s no communication to the outside world,” he said.

“Come back in one year, and see how these 10 representatives will be. They will be mooing like a cow. If you don’t give man education, you’ll get nothing.

“If you don’t give man education, you’ll get nothing.”

“So I say, the best way to curb insecurity is to go and see the source of the insecurity. In trying to go there, and establish contact with them, and open channels for them to get educated, then it became a problem,” Gumi added.

The cleric also reacted to what he called a long history of being misrepresented, especially on social media.

“Whenever you hear of Gumi, then I have a barrage of attacks coming at me, all because of this misrepresentation,” he said.

“I can understand now what Muslims in the Southwest have been enduring.”

Gumi insisted that his intervention approach is to identify the “source of insecurity” rather than condemn from afar.

He said his goal has been to build channels that could integrate armed herders back into society through learning, guidance, and communication.

The cleric praised the scholars at the summit, saying that despite the language barrier, he was aligned with the concerns raised.

“I don’t understand Yoruba, but I can understand from the vibration of the voices that we are saying the same thing,” he said. (SaharaReporters)