Gumi, who stated this in an interview with The PUNCH, said the Central Bank of Nigeria should pay the N100m ransom being demanded by the kidnappers of the students.

He made the call as a parent of one of the abductees lamented the kidnappers were insisting on a ransom of N100m and threatening to kill the students. No fewer than 23 students and a member of staff of the university were abducted from the school on 20 April 2021. Few days later, 5 of the students were killed by the bandits.

On Monday, one of the bandits, Sani Jalingo, in an interview with Hausa service of Voice of America, demanded N100m and 10 motorcycles for the students to be freed. He threatened that failure of Kaduna State Government or families of the students to meet the demands by Tuesday (yesterday), would lead to killing of the abductees.

Gumi, who spoke on Tuesday during a programme of the African Independent Television, Kakaaki, said he needed the support of the FG to rescue the students.

When asked if he was aware of the kidnap of students of Greenfield University and Federal College of Forestry, he said “As for the forestry students, we have been trying to see whether we can get some of the herdsmen’s contact so they can release these people. We have also been trying our best but you know we have limitations, there are lots of obstacles on the way but the parents have been really consulting with us.”

On the Greenfield University students, the cleric said, “The issue of the Greenfield students is a little bit more complex. There are two groups of bandits. We have the ordinary Fulani ethnic herdsmen and the religious elements, terrorists. That is why we have been telling the government to support us so we can go in and bring the children out.

Acccording to PUNCH, Gumi lamented that his efforts, which had been yielding fruits, were not being appreciated by the government and advised that the money be paid by the Central Bank and later recovered from the kidnappers since it will be too large for them to run away with.

His words: “The money they are asking for is too much; if I give you that money, you cannot run away with it. Nobody can run. So, why not give them the money, they release the boys and then we pursue them and get our money back and do what is necessary; it is simple logic. So, bring the money from the central bank. How can they move that money? We should not be stupid.

“These people are getting infiltrated; Boko Haram is getting close and they don’t respect the clergy. I need support to get them inoculated against the infiltration of these ideologies, whether Boko Haram or Ansaru, whatever it is. We need to shield them because they are naïve. If there is too much pressure on them, and they see help from Boko Haram, who are richer and have more weapons, it is going to consume everybody.”