The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of supporting the position of Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi by keeping silent on remarks credited to the cleric.
CAN in a statement on Wednesday said the President should have called Gumi to order over his statement where he claimed Christian soldiers were the ones killing Muslim bandits and insurgents to cause problems in the country.
The Christian umbrella body also called on Gumi himself to withdraw his statement in the interest of peace and unity in the country.
CAN went ahead to describe the submissions by Gumi as “unpatriotic and divisive utterances.”
It will be recalled as previously reported by Naija News that Gumi accused non-Muslim soldiers of launching attacks on villages and communities leading bandits to seek vengeance.
Speaking to bandits in a now-viral video online, the Islamic leader claimed that the soldiers are stirring confusions with the aim of wreaking havoc.
But CAN in a statement on Wednesday argued that there is no truth in what Gumi claims and warned him to desist from making such inflammatory statements.
The statement partly reads: “The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed shocks, pains, and disappointment in one Islamic leader, Sheik Ahmad Gumi over his alleged profiling of military operatives recently while addressing some bandits in Tegina forest, a border town between Niger and Kaduna States.
“We call on Gumi to immediately withdraw the unpatriotic and divisive utterances credited to him in the interest of peace and unity of this country.
“If anyone said it was the Christian soldiers who are attacking armed bandits, that person does not wish this country well and he doesn’t want the war against terrorism and banditry to end in victory. Gumi’s so-called audio evidence cannot be taken seriously because audio evidence can be deliberately arranged to make a point.
“Secondly, how can we ascertain the credibility of the person alleging that it was the Christian soldiers that were attacking communities and bandits? This unreasonable outburst is not only demoralizing and a plot to divide the Nigerian military into two along religious lines, it equally derogatively portrays the non-Christian soldiers as being not committed to fighting criminality.
“We still want to believe that Sheik Gumi was quoted out of context. But if it was true, then, the unity and peace of the country are being threatened by the sentimental statement of this cleric. We have not heard the Presidency react to this dangerous statement as they are supposed to do, cautioning this cleric who has thrown caution to the wind. Such a grave allegation is evil, divisive, unpatriotic, ill-wind, and reprehensible.
“We ask again, is Sheik Gumi trying to polarise the military along the religious divides? Is he inciting the bandits against Christians? Is Gumi saying that the Muslim soldiers are on vacation in the ongoing war against terrorists, murderous herdsmen and bandits? What good will this statement do to the insecurity in the country? We are of the opinion that the government of Nigeria should seriously caution Gumi for his reckless and inflammatory statement.”