By PETER ANOSIKE

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nelson Ahamefula Akuma, has called on the Federal Government to call controversial Muslim Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi to order over his unguarded utterances.

The Ebonyi State-born businessman and politician said that since Sheikh Gumi has become too big for the security agencies to arrest, Federal Government should at least caution him to talk less, adding that he has become a big problem to the country.

According to him, the way the Cleric is openly supporting the terrorists who are causing mayhem in Nigeria, while the Department of State Services (DSS) and the other security agencies are looking the other way is sending very wrong signal about the federal government.

He said that with Sheikh Gumi getting away with his open support to the terrorists who are killing and maiming innocent citizens, Nigeria is being perceived by the international community as having sympathy for the terrorists, if not encouraging their heinous acts.

Akuma noted that the Cleric is now been seen as being above the law or even as the unofficial government spokesman for the terrorists.

Furthermore, he stated that since the federal government claimed to be collaborating with the United States in the fight against terrorism, why should Gumi be allowed to be issuing threats against the United States government.

His words: “In Law, there is what is known as aiding and abetting. That is the crime that Sheikh Gumi is committing every time he opens his mouth to talk about this terrorists and our security agencies are looking the other way. From all indications, he seems to be above the law. So, since he cannot be arrested, I am urging the federal government to at least call him to order because he has become a big problem to the country. Imagine an individual telling Nigerian Army not to provoke the terrorists, and instead of killing them, government should put them on the national budget, build houses for them and give them scholarship. That simply means he is not seeing what they are doing as evil .The same Gumi has being negotiating ransom for the terrorists, taking ransoms to them in their hideouts and also serving as an intermediary between the terrorists and government and security agencies have not thought it wise to get him arrest.”

Akuma warned that allowing Gumi to continue with his reckless and unguarded statements could encourage others to start to toe the same line and before we knew it, we would have more problems than we could be able to contend.