Renowned Islamic scholar, Ahmad Gumi, has instituted a criminal case against two Facebook users at the Chief Magistrate Court in Kaduna State over alleged criminal conspiracy and defamatory publications made in his name.
The suit, numbered KMD/685/25 and filed on Wednesday, lists George Udom and Bello Isiaka as defendants, with Mr Gumi as the complainant.
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According to court documents, the defendants allegedly published a Facebook post on 23 December 2025, falsely attributing to Mr Gumi a chilling threat directed at the Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa.
The post read: “If the Minister of Defence Christopher Musa doesn’t stop his military offensive against bandits, his entire family in Zango Kataf in Southern Kaduna will be eliminated.”
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In his complaint, Mr Gumi said the post falsely suggested that he had personally threatened a serving public officer whose constitutional duty includes maintaining peace and security across Nigeria, including Kaduna State.
Through his counsel, Suleiman Lere, Mr Gumi denied authoring or endorsing the statement, describing it as “malicious, reckless, and deliberately” crafted to portray him as a sponsor of terrorism and a threat to national security.
He said the publication gravely damaged his reputation as a cleric widely known for preaching peace, dialogue, and restraint, while also exposing him to potential reprisals from security agencies and aggrieved individuals.
Mr Gumi further stated that the false attribution endangered his life, noting that such claims could provoke attacks against him or invite unwarranted actions by state authorities.
The application for criminal summons cited multiple provisions of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017, under which the alleged offences attract severe penalties upon conviction.
Speaking on the matter, Mr Lere, the lawyer, said the case should serve as a warning to social media users who spread false and defamatory content.
“The era of hiding behind a smartphone to destroy the reputation of others is over,” the lawyer said.
Mr Gumi remains a prominent and often controversial voice in Nigeria’s security and socio-political discourse, particularly regarding banditry in the North-west and North-central regions.
He is widely known for advocating dialogue with bandits who terrorise northern Nigerian communities and had previously visited armed bandits in forests across Zamfara and Niger states as part of peace-building efforts.
The cleric also called on the federal government to grant amnesty to bandits similar to the Niger Delta amnesty programme for militants and proposed the creation of a federal ministry of nomadic affairs.
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While the governments of Zamfara and Katsina states initially explored dialogue with bandits before reverting to military action, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello consistently opposed negotiations.
Following the federal government’s designation of bandits as terrorists in 2021, Mr Gumi said it became unsafe for him to continue engagement.
“Since the federal government has declared them terrorists, I don’t have anything to do with them anymore,” he said in a previous interview with PREMIUM TIMES.
He added that he would now remain a “spectator in the crisis,” stressing that his earlier interventions were motivated by peace and economic stability but were ultimately undermined.
Mr Gumi also noted that his past engagements with armed bandits had placed his life at risk, and he would no longer expose himself to such dangers.
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