By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Three days after popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, alleged that some non-Muslim soldiers were involved in act of genocide against the Fulani, neither the Nigerian military nor the Nigerian Army have denied the allegation.
The Sheikh in a recent interaction with bandits, had alleged that some non-Muslim soldiers have been carrying out genocide against Fulani communities. The Sheikh later provided an audio recording to Reno Omokri, a former social media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan where he was interviewing a man who claimed to be a soldier that witnessed the alleged genocide. The unknown soldier also supported his assertion with specific names and ranks of the officers spearheading the so-called genocide against the Fulani.
The allegation of the Sheikh against the military has been widely shared on the social media without a response from the Nigerian Military or specifically, Nigerian Army, whose men were mentioned as the culprits.
Despite being very active on the social media, and given the fact that the allegation is circulating the most on the social media, the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Army have been unusually quiet.
Gumi was also on the AIT on Wednesday, February 23 to reiterate the allegation of genocide.
The Sheikh claimed that the video of him talking to the bandits about non-Muslim soldiers attacking Fulani communities was taken out of context .
He said the context was that when he met the bandits whom he said he preferred to call militants, they were given the chance to express their grievance. And that they said hundreds of their relatives were killed by the military.
According to Gumi, it was based on that context that he provided the information that was given to him by a soldier in 2014.
Gumi said the motive of providing that information to them was to secure their trust and convince them to drop their arms.