Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi has revealed that bandits operating in Nigeria believe they are serving a higher cause by engaging in criminal activities.
Gumi made this assertion in a Facebook post on Sunday, where he reacted to a recent incident involving the seizure of Mines Resistant Armour Personnels (MRAPs) by bandits.
The MRAPs, reportedly belonging to the military, were captured by bandits under the leadership of Bello Turji, a notorious kingpin active in the Zamfara state region. A video of the bandits celebrating after setting the MRAPs on fire has gone viral on social media, sparking widespread concern.
In his post titled “Radicalisation of Bandits: I warned against the danger,” Gumi stated that the bandits initially engaged in what he described as an “ethnic war” that could have been resolved if approached differently. He expressed regret that his warnings against intensifying the military’s kinetic approach to dealing with the bandits were ignored.
“Initially Bandits were fighting an ethnic war that could easily be resolved,” Gumi wrote. “I warned if the kinetic approach is intensified they will turn into ideologically motivated guerilla warfare. Nobody listened.”
Gumi further explained the transformation of the bandits’ motives, comparing it to the Boko Haram insurgency. “The difference between the former and the latter is that ideological war is mostly intractable, BH (Boko Haram) as an example. They commit the same crime but this time they think they are serving God. The picture is gloomy,” he added.