The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has berated Sheikh Ahmad Gumi over his declaration that bandits terrorising the North had nowhere to go in spite of military offensive against them.
Describing Gumi as a bandit-lover, Adesina said contrary to his declaration, with the ongoing military offensive, bandits had a place to go: Hell.
Adesina launched his offensive against Gumi in his weekly column, From the Inside …Friday with Femi Adesina.
His words: “Shocking and disconcerting, however, that in the middle of all these, you still hear words meant to discourage our gallant soldiers. A bandit-lover is on record as saying military offensive would not work, and that the bandits “are going nowhere.” True? False. They are going somewhere. And that is: hell.”
Gumi had during the week said military offensive against bandits would not yield fruit.
Rather, he said government should grant them amnesty in the same manner it did Niger Delta militants.
But writing in his column, Adesina said with the rate at which the Nigeria troops had been neutralising bandits in recent time, it was obvious that they were already being spoken to in the language they understood and going to hell.
Said he: “For those who believe in the ineluctable victory of good over evil, no matter how long it takes, this has been an inspiring week.
“From the forests of a thousand daemons in Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger States, among others, bandits, criminals, evildoers are taking a pounding. In their scores, scores upon scores, they are being spoken to in the language they understand, and sent to God to answer for their sins. One has never been prouder of our military.
“I can see the hair splitting over whether they should be called terrorists rather than bandits, and I laugh. Sheer sophistry. Whether insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, ritual killers, criminals are criminals. And what do you do to such? Eliminate. Annihilate. Obliterate. If they won’t let decent society be, get rid of them. That is one case when an eye for an eye won’t make the whole world go blind.
“Before they got to this sorry pass, they had the chance to turn a new leaf. Zamfara, Katsina, and many other states offered dialogue. The governments tried to negotiate with them. But they were contumacious. Like dogs fated for destruction, they refused to hear the hunters’ whistle. They filled the land with sorrow, tears and blood, ‘dem regular trademark’ (as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would say). Now, the shoe is on the other foot.
“In the different evil forests, when the Nigerian Air Force strikes from the sky, the remnants of the evildoers not killed immediately attempt to flee. The ground troops then pick them off like flies. I say it again. One has never been prouder of our troops. They are cleaning up the country.”
