The Department of State Services (DSS) has invited Sheik Ahmad Gumi.
The Islamic scholar was invited for questioning over remarks he made in a TV interview that allegedly portrayed the Nigerian military in bad light.
A report by the Voice of America, VOA, Hausa service monitored on Friday,said Gumi was invited at the Kaduna office of the DSS, after the military authorities took exception to comments by Sheikh Gumi, alleging that their operatives were conniving with bandits.
When he featured on an ARISE Television programme earlier in the week, Gumi had said bandits would not have had access to weapons without the connivance of corrupt security operatives.
However, Gumi’s spokesman,Malam Tukur Mamu in an interview with VOA Hausa,dismissed the allegation against Gumi,saying there was no where in the TV interview where Gumi categorically accused the entire military.
According to Mamu,what Gumi said was what people have been saying and ” even the soldiers have been saying that there could be some bad eggs amongst them.”
He therefore urged the military and the TV company to apologize to Sheihk Gumi and retract their statements against him or else he will seek legal action.
He said in the entire discussion, the cleric did not blame the entire military, saying it was a fact that many people had fought, and even the soldiers themselves had repeatedly accused of being barbaric.
On Friday, VOA’s Hausa Service quoted Gumi’s spokesman, Tukur Mamu, as confirming the Sheikh’s invitation to the commission’s Kaduna office.
The military had earlier cautioned Gumi to be mindful of his utterances.
In a statement signed by the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Onyeama Nwachukwu, the military said the allegations made by Dr. Gumi were serious and an attempt to demoralise its troops
General Nwachukwu said the soldiers were the ones who sacrificed their lives to rescue the students of Federal Government College in Kebbi State, who were recently abducted by gunmen.
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