An  Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has defended that  bandits were pushed by circumstances and only killed for “revenge”.

Gumi while speaking on a National Television on Monday, claimed that the bandits have only killed a few people accidentally, adding that they (bandits) are fighting ethnic war.

He said, “I choose to call them (bandits) militants because they are fighting an ethnic war. They are kidnapping to get money. Look at the case where they released a bus full of people, they were asking for N500 million but now, they freed them with mere negotiations for free. Nothing was paid. Even one of them victims’ father called me to thank me.”

“Since there is a peace process, they are ready to lay down their arms, stop kidnapping and all the things they are doing. And you call them killer herdsmen, how many people do they kill? Sometimes, they are on drugs. They want the money.

“When they kill, it is mostly accidental, maybe somebody they took who is sick. But tell me who they have killed? How many? Few.”

Gumi who confirmed that the bandits are Nigerians, who speak Fulfulde and Hausa languages and also have families in the towns. He  explained that the bandits  are fighting ethnic war.

“Now we are not talking about banditry but an ethnic war between the nomadic Fulani, the herdsmen and the others – everybody who is not them.

“We are having an ethnic war, the Fulani feels his existence is threatened. What they do is to call other people from other places. Irrespective of where they are, a Fulani is a Fulani, they go to defend their kinsmen, that is why they transit the borders and then go back,” he said.