An unnamed cleric has told how islamic clerics are being recruited to justify the killing of Nigerians by Fulani militia and terrorists with a view to giving the killers amnesty and their unnamed elites political offices.
He also revealed in the video how the clerics are being implored to criticise the efforts of Governor Dikko Umar Radda of Katsina State, who has taken the battle to bandits and terrorists by employing and arming vigilantés.
Below is a link to the video in Hausa language that is trending on Facebook: (A rough translation of the is attached under the link)
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/15DFwMekE3/
The video:
English Translation:
I was invited to a meeting with security officials. We were mostly young preachers who command a large following, we were in great numbers at the meeting in one state of this country.
What they asked us to do is to come out and tell the world that Fulani terrorists in the forests took to arms because they were being oppressed.
That we should tell people not to blame them. People shouldn’t see their fault they took to arms to fight oppression, that’s one. We were asked to change the orientation of the populace. Secondly, we were told to call on government to grant them amnesty and not fight them and that we should make a case for their elite/leaders involved in the mass killings to be given political appointments – at the time we held this meeting, our governor here in Katsina State had inaugurated the volunteer guards. He recruited, trained and armed them to assist security agencies. We were told to preach and say the governor made a mistake with this approach so that other state governors will not follow his example. At this time, available information had it that the Zamfara State Governor was planning to follow the Katsina example.
We were encouraged to make these pronouncements. I was greatly troubled by these discussions. If those who were supposed to secure lives and property are the same people saying that we should stop blaming the Fulani, that they are fighting oppression, then they said we should not wage war against them but appease them by granting them amnesty and giving them appointments.
I was one of those chosen to speak at the meeting. When it was my turn, I said, I’m grateful to Allah that I was given the privilege to attend the meeting because I had ideas about how to improve our security and I wanted to know those who if I share the information with it would be useful . But today, I have the privilege of meeting those in government who are involved in this. I don’t agree with the suggestion that terrorists should be granted amnesty and appointments. It would be a mistake to do this. And I said my reason is that first, in the laws of this country before any person is appointed, his information will be sent to security agencies such as the Police and the DSS to be secretly investigated and vetted to see if he has a criminal record or a terrorist background. Why then should a person who only became known through his terrorism activities be given an appointment? Then, if appointed he will be moving around with siren and the children whose parents he killed be made to watch him drive around in such luxury, what will happen is that, the boys of such a terrorist will increase the level of their atrocities by killing more people since it would have become a qualification to get appointments.
I said I do not support that, secondly, what our governor in Katsina has done is what we need. He will employ workers from the state from the affected areas, train and provide them with arms and place them on salary to say go and protect your people this is the right thing to do.
The reason is that if they are going to bring a soldier or policeman from Enugu or Imo and bring him to Daura my hometown and say they are killing the people of Daura, come and protect them no matter how hard they try their effort will not be equal to what a person from Daura whose parents are being killed will do in the same situation if given the right training and properly armed. The man from Daura will be ready to do anything to protect his community what the (Katsina State) governor has done is to offer assistance.
Therefore, to me, I support what the Katsina State Governor has done and I hope other state governors emulate him.
To my suprise, I barely finished when some of the preachers present at the meeting started trying to shut me up because of money. One of them who was not among those originally chosen to speak stood up. After he pleaded for an opportunity to speak and was given, he got up and said all that I said were in error!
He queried why I said the terrorists should not be forgiven and given appointments even when history has it that, Khalid Ibn Walid who did great harm to Islam before his conversion and after he converted, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), made him one of his commanders.
I wondered how he would compare a terrorist with Walid who genuinely repented and believed in Allah not because he wanted to be appointed a Commander. He followed the prophet. Did these terrorists come out to repent? And you are saying we should appoint a known terrorist, when such a person gets into office and is not satisfied with the funds available for him in that office what do you think he would do? He will return (to terrorism). Khalid Ibn Walid when Umar, one of the Prophets lieutenants removed him as commander in the middle of a battle through a letter, did Walid renounce the faith?
Once you appoint a terrorist and you don’t meet his expectations he will return to his old ways. How can you compare such people?
Since that meeting, several similar meetings of that nature have held in Abuja and across cities in this country and I was never invited again. My offence? I said what they want us to say isn’t right. I listened to a press interview granted by the Katsina State Governor where he said he came under great pressure for engaging the services of Vigilantes to assist security agencies do their jobs.
I’m a witness, I was one of the young Islamic Clerics invited and told to preach against what the governor has done. The security challenge has a fearful undertone our prayer is that Allah should touch the hearts of all those in charge that they should fear Allah. This campaign is one of the things you hear when you listen to all their preaching it is tailored along this line. I believe in what the Quran says about people who kill, they should be killed so that they will not be alive to take another life. The punishment for killing is death.
Government sets aside huge sums of money with good intentions for security but some of those given the responsibility…those with this responsibility should do right, if they consider to amass illicit wealth a day will come when all they have gathered will be useless when they will stand before Allah and render account. May Allah help us.
