Gumi made this allegation on Thursday, February 11, when he featured on the Arise TV’s “News Night” programme. According to the renowned Islamic cleric, the military leaders are not “cooperating” in the efforts to end insecurity because they are beneficiaries of the continuous attacks from the bandits, insurgents and other criminal elements.
Sheikh Gumi said the Nigerian Army, others are cashing out billions on insecurity in the north. Gumi, a Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, alongside some other Islamic clerics, met with the bandits in Tubali and Makkai forests in Shinkafi local government area of Zamafara on Tuesday, February 2.
Nigerians reaction to Gumi’s decision to meet the dreaded bandits in their hideouts, however, generated massive outrage especially after the cleric confessed that the criminals wanted to take from the “national cake.”
Speaking on his crisis-ending move, Gumi said the bandits told him the military does not want insecurity to end because “of the billions of naira” they siphon from the big budget marked annually on security. “The military is not helping matters at all because they are the beneficiaries of this insecurity but I want them to change.” “The allegation that these people (bandits) say, they say, you military, you don’t want this conflict to end because of the billions of naira you claim for fighting insurgency. So, the military is not cooperating.”
Earlier, Gumi expressed optimism that banditry and kidnapping would become history in Zamfara state and the north.