Renowned islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has expressed that bandits would not surrender if Nigerian journalists keeps describing them as criminals.
Gumi, an outspoken Islamic scholar has been at the forefront of negotiations with the bandits that kidnapped 42 people from Government Science College in Niger state over a week ago.
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According to him, the bandits will refuse to surrender if Nigerian press keeps referring to them as criminals.
The cleric who stated this on Wednesday during an interview on ARISE News, stressed that tagging bandits as criminals will only make them get angrier and carry out more attacks.
Gumi also called the press “criminals” for describing the bandits as “criminals”.
The islamic cleric further said the language used in addressing the bandits is very important at this time and that that the tag ‘criminals‘ should be dropped temporarily.
He expressed;
You are emphasising on criminality, I don’t know. Even the Press (journalists) are criminals too because they are putting oil into fire. These people are listening to you, don’t address them as criminals if you want them to succumb.
Youths are ready to put down their weapons, now they are hearing you call them criminals, how do you want them to cooperate. So you have to show them that they are Nigerians and that they should not hurt children and that they should be law abiding, these are the language we want to hear from the Press to assist us in getting the boys.
He added;
When we talk to them in nice a wordings they are ready to put their weapons down, they are ready to listen to us, but when the language is about criminality, kill them, jail them, then this is what we will end up having.
Watch video of Sheikh Gumi speaking below;
“DON’T ADDRESS THEM AS CRIMINALS IF YOU WANT THEM TO SUCCUMB” – SHEIKH AHMAD ABUBAKAR GUMI ON BANDITS
Watch the full interview here: https://t.co/3XQ0Gj3qoy pic.twitter.com/8SOZMjyYNy
— ARISE News Feed (@ARISEtv) February 25, 2021
