PANDEF faults Gumi for calling herdsmen militants

The Pan Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF) has condemned comments credited to Islamic Cleric, Ahmad Gumi, in which he likened armed Fulani herdsmen as militants fighting for ethnic survival and not bandits.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, the group said it was vexatious and a huge nonsense for Gumi to say that killer herdsmen and murderous bandits should not be referred to as criminals, but militants fighting an ethnic war and for their existence.

Robinson said it was unfortunate that the country had continued to hear absurd statements from a man he described as ‘leader of marauders and murderers’, dressed in cleric’s toga, urging the media to stop giving him attention as his statement was capable of inciting crisis.

He said Gumi had claimed that the Federal Government was aware of the locations of bandits terrorising Nigerians and demand amnesty for them.

“Nigeria has never experienced the kind of nepotism and prejudice being perpetrated under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

“Virtually all strategic positions in the nation’s public sector, including the military, paramilitary and intelligence agencies, are under Hausa-Fulani hegemony.

“Oil blocks and marginal fields in the Niger Delta have ever been mostly exploited by northerners. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has become a ‘grazing’ ground for a few,” he said.

He pointed out that due to the injustice in the country, PANDEF National Leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and 15 other eminent Nigerians have gone to court over violations of the Federal Character Principle under the Buhari administration.

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