The claim by a Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmad Gumi, that the late Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and a former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi, died while plotting against Northern Nigerian Muslims has attracted the attention of security agencies.
The two men died in a helicopter crash that occurred last December in Bayelsa State. They were returning from the funeral of the father of a presidential aide, Oronto Douglas.
The influential cleric while delivering a religious lecture, allegedly asserted that the late Yakowa before his death was on an anti-Muslim mission.
He was further quoted as saying that the people of the state should ensure that only Muslims emerge Governors of Kaduna State in the future.
But Gumi’s speech which is seen as provocative, has caused some senior citizens of Kaduna State to send a detailed memo of the sermon to relevant security agencies.
They said the comments were likely to generate serious ethno-religious crisis in Kaduna town, one of the volatile parts of the northern region.
A source said: “The prominent people from Kaduna State wrote the memo, and included it with audio and video tapes of Gumi’s preaching,” the source continued. Gumi in one of the tapes, which I will give you the Internet link, indeed said that Yakowa and Azazi died while meeting on anti-Muslim issues.”
“He was also heard in the tape saying that, it was a plan with General Gowon using the burial in Bayelsa as a cover up for them to meet and that is why Yakowa followed Azazi alone without his ADC. Gumi in the audio tape also said that the Muslims of Kaduna State should never allow a situation that will bring about a non-Muslim to be governor, alluding to the fact that it was Allah that did this (crash) for the impending danger being planned against Muslims.”
He added that the Kaduna people demand action to be taken against Muslim or Christian clerics, whose preaching were capable of igniting violence. Here is the audio link of Gumi’s sermon: http://dandalinsunnah.com/siyasa5.mp3
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