The lead bandit negotiator and Kaduna-based Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi may be arrested anytime soon following confessional statement by his media consultant, Mr Tukur Mamu.
Mamu who was arrested in Cairo, Egypt on his way to Saudi Arabia on a lesser Hajj was handed over to the Nigerian Secret Police last week and since then, he has been under interrogation which may have indicted his principal and other personalities fuelling banditry activities in the North West, Nigeria.
Mamu, a journalist turned ‘bandit negotiator’ has influenced releases of several kidnapped victims, especially the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna bound train, but with huge sums of ransom paid through him, which he may have benefitted from.
Indications from security agencies in planning to arrest Gumi may has propped by Tukur Mamu’s confession as well as agitation by individuals and groups on the need to bring the Islamic Scholar to justice given his surreptitious roles in banditry activities in the North West.
The lead security agencies in the planned arrest of Gumi and other collaborators is the Department of State Security Services, even as the Director General of DSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, has said the secret police will go after all subversive elements creating problems in Nigeria.
He was quoted to have stated this while celebrating the end of his first term of office as he also begin his second term, revealing that some elements are being profiled for creating tension and threatening the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria.
The clamp down on them would soon begin.
Gumi, a source sàid in Abuja that he has been condemning arrest of his aide, Mamu despite the overwhelming evjdences of his culpability in aiding and abetting banditry activities in the North West
The shocking discovery of “Mamu who is a close associate of Gumi with $151,000, military accoutrements, gun magazines and other incriminating items”, gave him away, and yet Gumi is talking about his release instead of allowing justice take its cause”, the source stated.
On Friday, a Civil Society Organisation operating under the aegis of Coalition for Peace in Nigeria (COPIN) firmfir the arrest of Sheikh Gumi and be investigated over his romance with bandits.
The group’s call for arrest of Gumi was premised on his relationship with Tukur Mamu who is now in the DSS custody.
In a statement jointly signed by the National Coordinator of COPIN, Pharmacist Emeka Akwuobi, and National Secretary, Hajiya Fatih Yakub, the peace advocacy group said Gumi has a lot of explanations to offer on the activities of bandits, especially those operating within the North West general area.
COPIN said, Sheikh Gumi should be a person of interest, if the present administration was actually committed to tackling banditry band terrorism in Nigeria, wondering how could a man be fraternizing with criminal elements, yet, he was still allowed to walk around freely.
The group expressed the belief that the arrest of Gumi would create a peaceful atmosphere for the 2023 general election, even as they believe that he could provide the Service with credible/actionable intelligence on the actual locations and modus operandi of the terrorists, culminating in their arrest.
