Popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, has denied involvement in any negotiations for the release of the kidnapped persons.
The cleric told Thisday in a telephone interview that he went to Niger State on a peace mission with some leaders of the bandits and had nothing to do with the abductions in the state.
He said the meeting with some of the bandits’ leaders had been scheduled before the two kidnapping incidents happened.
Gumi said, “I am not part of any negotiations. We just met some of these militants (in Niger State), trying to dissuade them from their militancy.”
He said during his meeting with the bandits, he asked them about the abduction incidents, and they agreed that they knew the group that abducted the passengers in the bus, but said they did not know those who kidnapped students.
He stated, “We asked them (leaders of the bandits) about what happened and they said they know the group that abducted the bus and they said they will intercede and see that they are released. But for the (school) children, they said they didn’t know who did it, because it was too early for them to know.”
From his own observation and what he was told by one of the Fulani elders, Gumi said, “Those groups we met may be having problems with a splinter group.” He said his peace mission had been scheduled more than one week ago.
“This is just a postulation, not confirmed, maybe some splinter groups want to show their rejection of peace, that is why they did it. The people I met with are not the ones who abducted the students, but they said they knew the group that abducted the bus,” he explained.
Asked why he did not attempt to intervene to ensure the release of the students, Gumi said, “We did, the overall commander of the group we met, promised that he would investigate those who abducted the children and get them released.
“You know, you are dealing with groups of militants with warlords, not one, and they have formed an alliance, because they are operating within the same area. So now, the biggest one said let’s sit down and speak peace. There can be some few who did not hear about the call for peace or some splinter groups that don’t want peace.
“We don’t know. We are just postulating, because the incidents happened, when we had scheduled our meeting. We didn’t go there for negotiations. Our mission was before even the incidents. So, we were even surprised when the incidents happened, when we were trying to negotiate, to sit down with them.”
Gumi said his peace mission was targeted at the leaders of the bandits in Zamfara, Katsina and Niger states, stressing, “We were following the big militants to see how to pacify them. We were in Zamfara; we heard there is another one (leader of bandits) in Niger. There are even some still in Zamfara.
“We will go back to them and maybe in Katsina, there is a warlord. We are trying to see if we can pacify them. So, this, the abductions in Niger State, happened as a surprise to us too.”
Reacting to reports that the bandits demanded for N500 million for the release of the students, Gumi said, “That is nonsense! Nonsense! It is just nonsense!”
