Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has warned the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government against declaring bandits terrorists.

Gumi warned that Nigeria would stop existing as a sovereign and united entity if the Federal Government declared bandits as terrorists.

The Islamic cleric disclosed this in a Facebook post, on Sunday night.

He, however, admitted that the devastation caused by bandits in the Northwest amounted to terrorism.

Gumi stressed that despite the devastation, proscribing bandits would lead to severe consequences that will consume the entire country.

He said: “The acts the bandits are committing now in NW have gradually over time become tantamount to terrorism because wherever innocent people are fatal victims it’s pure terrorism.

“Many teaming unemployed youths may find it palatable and attractive. Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ plus AK47 against a ‘secular’ immoral society where impunity reigns are the magnet for extremists and downtrodden – the majority of our youth. Already these deadly terrorist groups are fighting for the soul of these.

“This will give criminality a spiritual cover and remove the stigma of discrediting them with such crimes since now they are fighting a ‘Jihad’ as they will claim.

“NE is already and is still devastated by this madness for over 12 years. If we allow, terror, to set in into these raw naïve unexposed bandits, NW will be in ruins sooner than later.

“Turn bandits into religious zealots. Tell me, what then remains of Nigeria?”