Dear Sheikh Gumi,
Why should we give bandits amnesty? Is it because they are Fulani or Muslim? What injustice are they fighting against? I read the Quran in Arabic. There is nothing in the Quran that supports your plea. General Buhari has been killing your fellow Muslim Shiite. Why have you not called for amnesty for Shiites who don’t kill, yet you want amnesty for bandits who kill?
Speak the truth, for you will one day die and face God, who is neither a Christian or a Muslim, or a Northerner or Southerner, or a Fulani or Ogoni.
You recently visited Zamfara and openly took a photo with hordes of bandits. These are killer terrorists. They have broken the Hudud of both God and man as outlined in Quran chapter 5.
They have committed the sin of Ḥirābah by waging war on society.
What exactly has the ESN done that makes them terrorists or criminals that the Nigerian military has turned Orlu into a war zone? Is it because they withstood killer herdsmen? Did Buhari’s defence minister not ask Nigerians to stop being cowards and face bandits and herdsmen? Is that not what ESN is doing?
Has Buhari sent helicopter gunships and artillery to the forests of Zamfara, Katsina or Niger to flush out your beloved bandits? So, what other amnesty do you want?
How is Kano’s Hisbah better than ESN? Have you ever heard that an ESN operative was caught in a hotel with a married woman, like the Kano Hisbah commander?
As long as some of our Northern brothers continue to be sentimental, there is the danger that Nigeria will divide, because it is hard to keep a country united with this level of hypocrisy and distrust that exists in Nigeria of today.
• Omokri, former presidential aide, is a public affairs commentator.