As criticism continues to surround the recent reported outburst of the northern Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, over the appointment of some Christians into strategic positions, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, stated on Tuesday that the cleric cannot use subtle threats to secure his negotiation contract with bandits under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Adeyemo emphasised that Tinubu’s choice of his ministers and their activities should not allegedly be used as a decoy by Gumi to seek reckoning or make discreet threats to obtain the job of negotiating with mindless bandits and terrorists, as he did under the immediate past government of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
It is worth noting that a video clip of the popular Islamic cleric decrying the appointment of southern Christians by Tinubu to head strategic positions in the North, along with Wike’s recent hosting of Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, in his Abuja office, has generated criticism from some quarters.
However, in a personally signed statement forwarded to journalists in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, Adeyemo warned Gumi to refrain from “fanning the embers of disunity in Nigeria with his inflammatory statements,” which he claimed were capable of causing disaffection among the citizenry.
The statement read: “We are familiar with Gumi’s background and his tactics. Before the rise of Tinubu, individuals like him should be answering questions to the security agencies about their roles in the ongoing insurgency in the northern parts of the country.
“While we will continue to advocate for an egalitarian society, we cannot stand by and allow Sheikh Ahmad Gumi to stir up political tensions with his careless, destructive, and inciting statements through his sermons. Nigeria’s secularity, as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, must not be violated by anyone, no matter how highly or lowly placed.
“We are not supporters of the Federal Government, but we remain part of the critical stakeholders in Nigeria’s project. Hence, there’s a need to promote sanity and decorum in the ears of anyone displaying religious fanaticism.
“For peace to prevail, it is the responsibility of everyone to refrain from any action that could provoke mutual suspicion, distrust, and unnecessary crises among Nigerians,” the statement concluded.
