Amnesty For Boko Haram Is Hypocritical, They Ought To Be Crushed – Sheik Gumi

Outspoken Islamic scholar – Dr Ahmad Gumi – has described the call for amnesty for Boko Haram as ‘hypocritical’, saying they ought to be ‘crushed.’

In a sermon posted on his Facebook page, Gumi, who once escaped being killed by some suspected terrorists, declared that were Prophet Mohammed himself to be alive today, he would personally have led the way in exterminating the sect.

He noted that “every individual in this nation is concerned about the future. Nigeria is catalytically deteriorating. Today the national discourse is on corruption and amnesty for terrorism.”

While stating that Nigerians have missed the crux of the matter, Gumi said, “Corruption is incurable, it is only suppressed. That is by genuine Ethics/faith illumination campaigns like the Ethical revolution, W.A.I, Re-brand Nigeria etc. and an effective system of accountability (i.e. check and balance) or what can be summed up as good governance. “

Addressing the scourge of Boko Haram, Gumi said the call for amnesty is hypocritical adding that as an ideology, the sect has disrespect for the Quran or Hadith or even Scholarly fatwa. “They have their own interpretation,” he started. “Anything short of that is part of the enemy that should be killed. So on what basis should there be dialogue or amnesty? It is a creed that must be crushed; it is a creed the prophet – alaihis Salam- wished he is alive to exterminate.”

Sheik Gumi however put it beyond the present dispensation to end the Boko Haram insurgency “because it lacks the moral high ground to defeat them.”

Joining the fray of those who accuse the JTF of high handedness in its fight against the sect, Gumi said more innocent people had been killed, maimed, tortured and incarcerated by the JTF than Boko Haram itself or those that camouflage behind them.

According to him, “a whole region is made to suffer economically, socially and politically because of this blind war on terror. The present dispensation has everything to gain is refusing the ‘amnesty’ call for political reasons, that is why it is recalcitrant. Otherwise, if the need to crush BH is genuine, it would have been achieved since.”

Instead, he called for a “selected Muslim High ranking officer” of the armed forces to take charge of the whole ‘operation’ from investigations to incursions arguing that the situation requires “careful excision and only the person that feels the pains of society has the capacity to carry it out.”

He then likened it to the removal of a brain tumour which he said, “you don’t give that to an orthopedic surgeon no matter how good, to do that. It is an operation of precision not brute force. This choice of tackling a peculiar problem is the sign of good governance. Special missions have special requirements if success is the objective.”

He pointed out that “Boko Haram are armed individuals hiding is a civilian population. They do not control any high fire power to be engaged in a war. Therefore there is absolutely no need -what so ever- to deploy and ultimately exhaust the military in road blocks all over the spheres of their activities. What are needed are very good intelligence, special strike squads and the genuine cooperation of the civilian population which can never be achieved through intimidation.”

He warned that because “the issue is tackled with the impulses of vengeance and retaliation as the case is now, the whole saga is gradually turning into another thing all together” adding, “this is what makes the future bleak and frightening.”