The Federal Government announced that Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi from Kaduna has been asked to come for questioning regarding his remarks on bandits in the country.
Minister of Information and Orientation, Mohammed Idris, revealed this during a press conference at the State House in Abuja on Monday.
Gumi had previously criticized the government for relying on force to deal with kidnappings, suggesting instead that they should engage with the bandits to understand their grievances and improve their living conditions.
He warned that the government’s approach has only made the situation worse by turning the bandits into dangerous threats.
He said: “These bandits are getting more vicious. Before they were not doing this. They are heading to softer targets and we can only attribute this to the kinetic approach.
“Now we are fighting bandits. They are anonymous. You cannot fight someone you don’t even know. We said let’s go in, let us know them, let’s map them out – know who they are and where they belong.
“All this intelligence information is virtually not there.
“The high-handed approach to the matter is what is making it worse. Now they are kidnapping children and threatening death, which they were not doing before.
“So, I think what to do is really go back to the drawing board and be truly non-kinetic.”
