June 25, 2021

The Department of State Services on Friday said it has invited Kaduna-based cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi for questioning.

A report by the Voice of America, VOA, Hausa Service on Friday, said Gumi was invited at the Kaduna office of the DSS, after the military authorities took exception to comments by Sheikh Gumi, alleging that their operatives were conniving with bandits.

Although the DSS did not confirm the rationale for the invitation, Sheikh Gumi has recently been outspoken on the issue of banditry in Nigeria.

Speaking during an interview on ARISE Television on Wednesday, Gumi had alleged that security agents played a role in the insecurity plaguing Nigeria by collaborating with the bandits who engage in killing and kidnapping for ransom.

He had also said amnesty should be extended to bandits, who he says have been ‘forced’ into criminality due to, in part, government neglect.

However, Gumi’s spokesman, Malam Tukur Mamu in an interview with VOA Hausa, dismissed the allegation against Gumi, saying there was nowhere in the TV interview that Gumi categorically accused the entire military.