Gumi Offers To Negotiate With Bandits over School Abduction.

Kaduna-based Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, says he has the intention to dialogue with bandits who abducted about 287 schoolchildren from Kuriga Government Secondary and LEA Primary Schools in the Chikun Local Government Area of the state.

Gumi who disclosed this in a bid to facilitate the release of the abducted schoolchildren should President Bola Tinubu give him the opportunity to negotiate said, Tinubu must not repeat the mistake made by former President MuhammaduBuhari, who refused to dialogue with bandits.

Meanwhile, the government of the affected state has refused to dialogue with the bandits to release the schoolchildren and has also refuted claims that it had hired a private negotiator to facilitate the release of the victims, while, Gumi had previously negotiated on behalf of state governments to free abducted people by bandits.

This is coming after in May 2021, one of the parents of the kidnapped students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State, said rather than point an accusing finger at Gumi for being complicit in the banditry ravaging the country, Nigerians should commend the cleric for his interventions in seeking the release of abducted persons in the country.