Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, on Tuesday said there was religious bias in the Nigerian Army between 2010 and 2015 and not in this present military.
Recall that Gumi during a meeting with bandits in Tegina forest had accused Christians soldiers of killing and attacking Muslim bandits.
He said, “What I want you people to understand is soldiers that are involved in most of the criminalities are not Muslims. You know, soldiers have Muslims and none Muslims. The non-Muslims are the ones causing confusion just to ignite a crisis.”
Naija News had earlier reported that the spokesman of the Army, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Yerima, while reacting to the statement on Monday said the security agency did not deploy its troops based on ethnic or religion as implied by the Islamic cleric.
Yerima also warned Gumi against making divisive and disparaging utterances against the military institutions.
The cleric while speaking with BBC on Tuesday said his earlier statement was misunderstood, blaming media reports for the misunderstanding.
He said, “I saw the Army’s response. What I will say is that there is a misunderstanding in the issues. When I speak about the religious issue in the Army, I am not referring to today’s Army.”
“The issue is from 2010-2015 when some people were in charge and a lot of bad things happened.”
“It is during that time that there were bombings everywhere. It happened in Jaji and we lost a popular Muslim general. Even, I was saved by God because they planted a bomb for me,” Gumi said.