If civil war instigators were pardoned, bandits should be forgiven too —Gumi

Popular Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on Thursday, insisted that the Federal Government must pardon the bandits if it could forgive coup plotters in the past.

Gumi, made the statement while replying to the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna, adding that forgiving the bandits is the only way for peace to reign in the country.

According to him, “Even those that instigated the civil war, the civil war that millions of people died, were pardoned. I see no reason why we cannot accept their (bandits) repentance and give them amnesty.”

He also said that he was misunderstood by CAN over a viral video about his discussion with the bandits.

“You ask why do we give them amnesty but they told us specifically that they are ready to drop their arms and they don’t want to be pursued with legal actions after they repented. If the country could pardon coup plotters who committed treasonable offences in the era of military administration, the bandits can as well enjoy similar forgiveness even better under democratic rule.

“These people in the bush, who have taken arms; they are criminals. I wonder who is not a criminal. Since Nigeria forgave coup plotters, forgave those that killed. Even those that instigated civil war; the civil war that millions of people died, I see no reason why we cannot accept their repentance.

“Since that is the bottleneck and it is only the Federal Government that can give them that leverage. Strangely, we found out that they are victims too. They were victims of profiling. So many of them were arrested and punished just for looking like herdsmen”, Gumi said.