Kaduna State-based cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said bandits are killing in revenge for the hostilities they suffered from the Nigerian State.

He added that rampaging bandits want peace and unlike the Indigenous People of Biafra terrorists pushing for secession.

Mr Gumi, a self-appointed advocate for bandits, made this call during an interview with Trust TV. The interview was published on X on Friday.

Asked why he was insisting that bandits raping and killing people should be pacified to drop their arms, Mr Gumi said, “The former governor of Bauchi State Yuguda was able also to go with government delegates into the bush and they met more than 5,000 bandits. They (bandits) were all complaining: those who have lost their parents, those who have lost their brethren from our hostility too.”

“So when you say they have killed, yes I know they have killed and it is wrong to kill anybody innocent. It is an obnoxious thing to do. We don’t support that. But if you know their psychology, they are on a revenge mission. Everybody knows the Fulani herdsmen, they don’t just attack. We have been living with them for centuries. They don’t attack people without any cause. What the government needs to do is to bring them together in unison and holistic form. So that there is peace,” Mr Gumi said.

The cleric claimed bandits had shown commitment to peace in Nigeria unlike secessionist groups who refused to hold a dialogue with the government.

“They (bandits) are ready for that because if you call them for peace they come unlike the others, the IPOB. The government has been trying to dialogue with them but they still refused. They are still behind creating a separate state. They are secessionists. Besides being terrorists, they are secessionists. But these people (Bandits) are not secessionists. They want peace, they call for it,” Mr Gumi said.

Mr Gumi continues to demand dialogue and amnesty for bandits killings and kidnapping people in northern Nigeria despite with efforts by governors in some regions. .

In 2022, Aminu Masari, a former governor of Katsina State, said he regretted trusting bandits who deceived his government into believing that they had surrendered their weapons by swearing with the Qur’an in his office.

“Because they (terrorists) said they are Muslims, we went as far as asking them to swear to the Holy Qur’an that they would never participate in banditry again. All of them were in this office but even those that had been in jail for over two years were brought out, today they are bandits’ leaders,” Mr Masari said.