Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has warned that Nigeria will no longer exist as a sovereign entity if bandits are declared terrorists.
The Kaduna-based cleric directed his warning at the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, stating that proscribing the unidentified gunmen who have wreaked havoc across the country in the past year, will lead to devastating consequences.
According to Gumi, the result would consume the entire country.
Sheikh Gumi disclosed this in a Facebook post, on Sunday night.
He, however, admitted that the devastation caused by bandits in the Northwest amounted to terrorism.
He said: “The acts the bandits are committing now in NW have gradually over time become tantamount to terrorism because wherever innocent people are fatal victims it’s pure terrorism.
“Many teaming unemployed youths may find it palatable and attractive. Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ plus AK47 against a ‘secular’ immoral society where impunity reigns are the magnet for extremists and downtrodden – the majority of our youth. Already these deadly terrorist groups are fighting for the soul of these bandits.
“This will give criminality a spiritual cover and remove the stigma of discrediting them with such crimes since now they are fighting a ‘Jihad’ as they will claim.
“NE is already and is still devastated by this madness for over 12 years. If we allow, terror, to set in into these raw naïve unexposed bandits, NW will be in ruins sooner than later.
“Turn bandits into religious zealots. Tell me, what then remains of Nigeria?”
