Popular Islamic scholar and negotiator, Sheik Ahmad Gumi has slammed the Federal government for threatening to sanction Daily Trust Newspaper and BBC for running documentaries on bandits and terrorists in Zamfara State.
The lingering banditry activities have become a focus of the media outlets where there conducted investigations and publicised it, a development that didn’t go down well with the Federal government.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed on Thursday frowned at the media outlets and vowed to sanction them.
Reacting, Gumi who has been negotiating with bandits to ensure peace, submitted that the Federal government has failed and is attempting to blackmail
blackmail media houses to cover its failure and divert public scrutiny into high level corruption in military spending and budgetary allocations.
The Islamic scholar lauded those media houses for painstakingly publishing the high level of insecurity in the North West Nigeria.
He remarked that the report by BBC and Daily Trust was succinct, adding that what is happening in the North West as clearly captured is an ethnic war and reprisal killings.
The scholar who was speaking in his weekly lecture insisted that the FG failed to address injustices which was initially done to the Fulanis.
He said: “What do you expect from a society (Fulani) that were left in total ignorance and lack of education especially when their primary means of livelihood (cattle) has been completely rustled by other criminal elements within and outside our security agencies without any effort by government to address the injustice.
“As I talk to you now cattle rustling has not stopped. Many law abiding Fulanis have fallen victims of official extortion of their cows.
“I have well documented evidences involving some security agents that I personally intervened. How do you expect as a government to address insecurity especially related to Fulani bandits without addressing such instances of extortion and rustling?”
He revealed that Fulani are currently being indoctrinated into Boko Haram ideology, a situation he posited, would be frightening, adding that President Buhari should make his security chiefs accountable rather than trying to find a scapegoat in the media so as to silence them.
“When a Commander-in-Chief rewards failure with Ambassadorial appointments in a system and a society that records increased attacks, when security agencies cannot even protect Abuja and especially when the Guards Brigade cannot even protect themselves not to talk of the President then why blaming the media for such failure and ineptitude for reporting it?” he asked.
He encouraged the media to be courageous, brave and not succumb to anyone’s intimidation.
