In the wake of the rising death toll recorded in an ill-fated Kaduna-bound train from Abuja which was attacked by bloodthirsty terrorists around 6pm on Monday, civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has asked the Federal Government to arrest controversial Islamic cleric Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, who according to them, has persistently defended the atrocious criminality of bandits and other marauders in Northern Nigeria
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, argued that Gumi has been outspoken as a “bandits’ sympathiser” over the years including demanding blanket amnesty for daredevil bandits and venturing into the forests of Zamfara, Katsina, and Niger States to hold discussion with the dreaded bandits turning the North-West zone to another place of sorrow, tears and blood.
The rights group also said it was not enough for the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists as gazetted by the Federal Government in January 2022 following the order of Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The group said the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), should go further and also gazette “bandits’ sympathisers” like Gumi as terrorists.
HURIWA carpeted the Buhari regime for handling the worsening security situation in Kaduna and the rest of the country with kid’s gloves.
Credit: Punch