A prominent Nigerian Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, said Tuesday he has been threatened for not supporting Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Kaduna-based cleric raised the alarm on Tuesday in a Facebook post titled, “PDP v APC: It’s Not about Religion.”
He said his children have also been receiving calls from persons who use unknown telephone numbers to threaten them.
“People like me who had all along been critical about the government can longer speak or express personal opinion if it is not in support of Gen. Buhari,” said Shiekh Gumi.
“Just this morning around 2.30a.m., my three male children individually got threatening phone calls from a private number. People can vote for whoever they choose whether a Christian or a Muslim”
The cleric had in a separate Facebook post in October called on Mr. Buhari not to contest the 2015 presidential election for fear of crisis.
At the same time, he also advised President Goodluck Jonathan not to stand in next year’s presidential election.
Mr. Jonathan has emerged the PDP candidate while Mr. Buhari is the APC candidate.
Mr. Gumi has also recently criticized the choice of a lawyer and pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Yemi Osinbajo, as Mr. Buhari’s running mate, saying, “It’s now the Church not just Christians that have their feet engrossed in the APC.”
Reacting to Sheikh Gumi’s alarm, a Zaria-based cleric, Ahmed Ali, advised the preacher to stay off politics so that he will not derail from what he has been known for.
“Politics is for politicians while religious teachings are in the hands of clerics. Gumi should have remained on that and not start joining issues with politicians,” Mr. Ali said. “You can see that he is being labeled as an enemy by supporters of the candidates he claimed to have given advice.”
Instead of venturing into the murky political terrain, Mr. Ali advised Mr. Gumi to continue preaching to the youth to avoid any form of violence.
He advised Mr. Gumi to offer any advice he has personally to those concerned.
“You can see even if the cleric has a good intention on what he is doing, it is becoming a worrisome issue for him and even his family because he did not do it with wisdom,” Mr. Ali said.
He called on religious leaders to use their positions to preach to people to eschew violence and to also advise politicians to play politics with decorum
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