A Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Ahmad Mahmud Gumi says the crises he saw in the Zamfara forest were beyond banditry but better described as an insurgency. Sheikh Gumi made this known at the Zamfara state Government house when he met with, Governor Matawalle of Zamfara state, in Gusau, Zamfara state capital on Thursday.
According to the cleric, the criminals informed him that they became wild as the yansakai “vigilante” group in the state have continued to kill their people extrajudicially.
However, he said the bandits have demonstrated willingness to lay their arms and give peace a chance if the authorities are ready to stop attacking them.
In his statement, “In most of the bandits and Fulani camps we have visited in Zamfara, I come to understand that what is happening in the state is nothing but an insurgency,”.
Gumi opined that dialogue with the criminals could be a way out of this insecurity the country has found itself in.
Although he said, some school of thought is of the opinion that the criminals should be crushed to totality, while others are of the opinion that even world wars were ended on negotiation tables, saying what he believed is that these criminals are stalk illiterates and can be convinced to accept peace.
The cleric visited a village called Tubali and Makkai in the Shinkafi forest of Zamfara state last week to sit down with the criminals and talk.
Last two weeks, he also met with some criminals in Kaduna state who he reported to have agreed to lay their arms after he brokered a peace deal with them.
 "Dubai Submerged In Flood")