Aprominent  Islamic  cleric,  Sheikh  Ahmed  Gumi  says  the  bandits  he  had  dialogues  with  in the  past  have  repented.

The  cleric  has  been  visiting  bandits  in  the  forest  in  an  attempt  to  negotiate  a  peace  deal  with  them.

He had also called on the Nigerian government to grant amnesty to the gunmen.

“I appeal to the government and recommend that the government should do to them exactly what they did to the Niger Delta militants and give them a blanket amnesty. Then if anybody will continue, we will deal with him,” Gumi had said.

In a recent interview with Roots TV, the cleric reiterated his call for amnesty.

He said, “All those we met, all of them have stopped being involved in this kidnapping. The ones doing it now are rogue ones who we did not sit down with.”

According to him, the process of “sitting down with” other bandits was stalled by “authorities” who do not want it.

“Our processes were arrested and stopped by the authority, which is not interested in it,” he said.