Gumi: I was marked for elimination during US air strike in Sokoto

Ahmad Gumi, a Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, says he was informed that he had been listed for elimination as a Boko Haram figure on the same morning a bombing linked to United States military operations occurred in Nigeria.

Gumi made the disclosure while recounting events surrounding recent US air strikes targeting terror groups in the north-west and north-east.

“There was a bombing here; the morning it happened, I received a call—I won’t tell you who called me—but I was told a security briefing was taking place and I was listed among those who will be eliminated as Boko Haram,” Gumi said.

On December 25, the United States launched a fusillade of air strikes on members of the ISIS Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Sokoto.
This incident followed the threat made by Trump that the US would go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to wipe out the terrorists killing Christians”.

Gumi strongly criticised foreign military involvement in Nigeria, arguing that such interventions worsen insecurity rather than resolve it.

“They claim to have come here to fight terrorists, but they are the actual terrorists,” he said.

The cleric also questioned the response of political and religious leaders in northern Nigeria to repeated attacks by Boko Haram and ISIS-linked groups, expressing frustration over what he described as silence and inaction.

“The north, you all know they attacked, but where are your leaders and what have they done about it?” Gumi asked.

He also criticised religious scholars, accusing them of failing to address false claims made by terrorists and of providing support exclusively to Christians.

“They attacked us for false claims, and they give support of a certain amount of money to Christians alone. No country will accept that. Either you give support to the entire nation or we don’t need it,” Gumi said.

“It happens and nobody is talking; they are all afraid to talk. That’s the situation we are in this country.”