The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III has opined that people of the Fulani race are not terrorists or bandits.
The Sultan of Sokoto, who made this known during a visit to the office of the National Hajj Commission in Abuja, said though the race has some bandits but does not indicate all Muslim are criminals.
He described himself as a proud Fulani but not a criminal, bandit or terrorist.
In a related development, famous Islamic scholar Sheik Ahmad Gumi has kicked against how media outlets describe bandits as criminals.
According to the scholar, tagging bandits as criminals will only make them angrier and encourage them to carry out more attacks.
He opined that the language used in addressing the bandits is critical, adding that the media outlets should cease describing the bandits as criminals.
Gumi further stated that the Press are getting involved in crimes and putting oil into the fire by addressing the bandits as criminals.
The scholar disclosed that the bandits would drop their weapons if the media could address them nicely.
Everyevery.ng had reported that Gumi highlighted what he described as the reason for banditry in Nigeria, noting that the Herders/farmers crisis is a simple criminality case that turned into banditry, ethnic war and genocide.
According to him, the solution to banditry is not military hardware but dialogue and teaching, adding that the bandits are acting with no special knowledge.
He also stressed the need to investigate how cattle rustling became a big business in Nigeria and how it affected the nomadic Fulani’s socio-cultural behaviour.