TERRORISM: The End Is Near For Boko Haram - Gumi, Islamic Cleric

Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi

Kidnap of girls’ll end Boko Haram activities, says Gumi

Posted by: Tony Akowe, Kaduna in Featured, News 16 hours ago

Renowned Islamic Scholar Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar Gumi has said that the  kidnap of school girls by the Boko Haram insurgents will end the group’s activities.

In a statement in Kaduna, Gumi said security agents should encircle the Sambisa forest and use aerial surveillance that would lead to the capture of the abductors, adding that time was running out fast on them.

He wondered why it has taken the military so long to use the drone developed and manufactured by the Nigeria Air Force Institute of Technology in Kaduna. If the drone is working, said Gunmi, this is the right time to use it.

To him, it is ironic that “nobody wants to take responsibility and honorably resign for more responsible officials to clear the mess”.

He said: “When there was a bomb blast in Jaji cantonment during the hey days of explosions in the northern capital cities, the cantonment commandant was sacked and retired from the Army. This spirit of accountability has suddenly vanished.

“This abduction is an end game for whoever is responsible for the killings, bombings and terror all over in general. The abductors – whoever they may be- are confined in space and time for the first time. The abducted girls are known, therefore, lies will have to end. The abductors must be identified. These girls hold the answers to all the melodrama that is called war against Book Haram.

“The space is Sambisa forest – a must- since there are confirmed cases of escapees from it. The time is also against the criminals. Encircle all outlets from the forest, take aerial surveillance – shouldn’t we wonder now if the drone purported to have been manufactured in Kaduna Air Force base was not really a dummy? – or get the help from United States.

In his view, Boko Haram’s objectives have not crystallised.

“The freed girls would also talk. And nobody in the system yet wants free flow of information on what is truly happening. I am still surprised why there are no free interviews with the runaways?”, he said.

To him, young girls “are the greatest stimulus for sympathy on human psyche while the international community, the locality and  every soul was touched by this barbarism”.

“Therefore, I see – insha Allah- this is the end game of the saga called Boko Haram. There will be surprises definitely! May Allah ease their release and protect our nation from criminals and irresponsible officials”, Gumi said.

Some women have threatened to march naked into the Sambisa forest in search of the girls.

Speaking on the Hausa Service of the BBC monitored in Kaduna yesterday, one of the women who simply gave her name as Ajoke said since the government tended to be more concerned about other issues than mobilising troops to rescue the girls, they may be left with no option than to go into the forest in search of their daughters.

She said that they had given an ultimatum for their daughters to be rescued or else, they would have no option than to storm the Sambisa forest.

“We are not comfortable with the government; if not, how can our daughters be locked in the school, then all of a sudden some people would appear with their vehicles and packed our daughters like goats, run away with them without anyone raising alarm,” she queried.

Another woman, Hayija Asmau Joda also told the BBC that the government was not living up to expectation, adding that as concerned mothers, they were disturbed about what was happening to the Chibok girls,. “Two weeks have gone with no trace of the missing girls and the government is not saying anything about it,” she said, adding:

“We’ve not seen the government making any effort because no single girl is returned to her family. Only those that were lucky to escape, those that had the courage to jump and run away from the abductors. Some even had fractures; therefore, we know it was not the government of Nigeria that saved those girls.

“We are gathered here to show the government how sad we are, because they are not concerned. We want to beg them to wake up and find our daughters. It is unusual to see women staging a protest, but since men are unable and women have come out to protest from many parts of the country, it is our hope that the government will now take the issue much more serious”.