Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, warned the Federal Government not to accept Sheikh Ahmad Gumi’s persistent advocacy for dialogues with terrorists and bandits.
The group called on President Bola Tinubu to reject outright the constant demands for terrorists to be pardoned or bribed with a programme like the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, established by the government of Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.
In a statement by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group dismissed the suggestion by the Kaduna-based Islamic scholar as unconstitutional, illegal and absolutely reprehensible.
HURIWA argued that PAP for Niger Delta militants was justifiable following degradation of the Niger Delta ecosystem, which necessitated armed struggles by militants, adding that the programme was funded with proceeds of crude oil from the area.
The group wondered why Gumi thinks the Fulani terrorists, who have no justifiable reason for any agitation, should be bribed with revenues generated from crude oil resources found in the Niger Delta.
“The call for an amnesty programme for Fulani terrorists is fallacious, untenable, criminal, puerile, laughable and should be dismissed as the garbage that it is,” the group noted.
Dismissing the Islamic scholar as a terrorists’ sympathiser, HURIWA condemned Gumi for failing to see the need to totally condemn and deprecate the bloody violence unleashed on innocent citizens by terrorists based in the North West made up mostly of armed Fulani militiamen.
“But this Kaduna Islamic scholar has carved a niche for himself as someone who would always be the first to rush to the media since the last one decade to plead the cause of terrorists, which is totally misdirected and misconceived.
“Gumi had claimed that gaining access to terrorists is easy if the Nigerian government is ready to dialogue with them. In another breath, this same man said these terrorists are unknown. So if the terrorists are unknown, how does Gumi think he can make access to them seamless? Is this not a fallacy?” the group queried.
Onwubiko recalled that Gumi said this while reacting to the abduction of over 280 schoolchildren and staff in Kaduna, last week, adding that Gumi, during an interview with Arise News TV, on Thursday, night insisted that the best way to rescue all the abducted children and other residents was for the government to use a non-kinetic approach.
