Sheik Ahmad Gumi has revealed why the kidnapped students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Kaduna, are yet to be released.
The students were abducted on March 11, 2021, exactly two weeks ago in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna state.
A day after the abduction, a video surfaced online, where the students were seen sitting on the ground in an unknown location and guarded by armed men whose identities were concealed.
In his conversation with Daily Trust on Thursday, March 25, Gumi revealed that there is serious apprehension now among the bandits following the federal government’s shoot-on-sight order.
According to him, some of the bandits he met in the forest during his peace meetings have assisted in identifying the leader of the gang responsible for the abduction of the students.
Gumi noted that despite identifying the leader of the gang, he has been unable to reach out to him because of the shoot-on-sight order of the president.
The Muslim scholar said the criminals are very suspicious of anyone they come in contact with as they fear that such persons might be working for the government.
He said: “Presently, our ability has reached the extent that we can identify who is involved in any criminal act. We have identified the leader of those who took the students but he has never attended any peace meeting with us.
“Those groups we met identified him but we could not reach out to him because of the security implication since the government gave shoot-on-sight order and then the government said no negotiation. So, I don’t want us to go into the bush and the government will think we are encouraging them.”
As a suggestion, the Sheik called on the government to relax and allow him and his team to soften these bandits into submission and repentance through negotiation.
“What I think is for the government to just relax and allow us to follow these people to teach them how to behave, admonish them and then negotiate so that they stop this thing.”
