According to him, the process of “sitting down with” other bandits was stalled by “authorities” who do not want it.
A prominent Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi says the bandits he had dialogues with in the past have repented.
The cleric has been visiting bandits in the forest in an attempt to negotiate a peace deal with them.
He had also called on the Nigerian government to grant amnesty to the gunmen.
“I appeal to the government and recommend that the government should do to them exactly what they did to the Niger Delta militants and give them a blanket amnesty. Then if anybody will continue, we will deal with him,” Gumi had said.
In a recent interview with Roots TV, the cleric reiterated his call for amnesty.
He said, “All those we met, all of them have stopped being involved in this kidnapping. The ones doing it now are rogue ones who we did not sit down with."
According to him, the process of “sitting down with” other bandits was stalled by “authorities” who do not want it.
“Our processes were arrested and stopped by the authority, which is not interested in it,” he said.