Controversial Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on Friday reacted to the terrorist attacks on the Guards Brigade in Abuja and the Federal Government threat to sanction media outlets for their coverage of the lingering insecurity in the country.
On Thursday, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said Trust TV and the BBC would be sanctioned over documentaries on the nation’s terrorism and banditry.
Sheikh Gumi said insecurity should be expected because President Muhammadu Buhari rewards failure with an Ambassadorial appointment.
Gumi, in a statement on Friday, blamed illiteracy for the insecurity in the North, asking rhetorically: “What do you expect from a society (Fulani) that was left in total ignorance and lack of education, especially when their primary means of livelihood (cattle) has been completely rustled by other criminal elements within and outside our security agencies without any effort by the government to address the injustice.
“As I talk to you now, cattle rustling has not stopped. Many law-abiding Fulanis have fallen victims to the official extortion of their cows. I have well-documented evidence involving some security agents in which I personally intervened. How do you expect as a government to address insecurity, especially related to Fulani bandits without addressing such instances of extortion and rustling?
“When a Commander-in-Chief rewards failure with ambassadorial appointments in a system and a society that records increased attacks, when security agencies cannot even protect Abuja and especially when the Guards Brigade cannot even protect themselves not to talk of the President, then why blame the media for such failure and ineptitude for reporting it?”