Bayelsa state governor, Douye Diri has questioned why the President Muhammadu Buhari government arrested Nnamdi Kanu, and did not pick up a renowned Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, over his alleged link to bandits.
The Governor said this on Tuesday, when he featured as a guest on Channels Television breakfast current affairs programme, Sunrise Daily, where he noted that Gumi had become somebody no one could touch, adding that it was very unfair.
Diri said, “Two things I have to say; first, they should give him [Nnamdi Kanu] a fair hearing so that the trial will not be done in a way that everyone (especially the Igbo) will see it as oppression.
“Second, as we talk about the IPOB, what about the boys (bandits and herdsmen) organising killings in the North and in the whole country? What of Sheik Gumi? He has become somebody no one can touch. That’s very unfair.”
Gumi had recently warned the government against the killing of bandits, insisting that the criminals were victims too.
The Islamic scholar insisted that no school was safe in the North West for now until the government negotiated with the bandits.
His recent statement has raised questions of his involvement with the bandits and why the Buhari’s administration has failed to summon him for questioning.
