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Manipulated video misrepresented as Sheikh Gumi asking government to include bandits in national budget

Nurudeen Akewushola
Nurudeen Akewushola
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A video showing controversial Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, asking the government to include bandits in the national budget has surfaced online.

According to the video, Gumi purportedly said that attacking bandits is a mistake and urged the government to negotiate with them and include them in the national budget.

A popular news blog, Linda Ikeji Blog, posted the video with the caption:

“Attacking the bandits will be a mistake. Negotiate with them instead. Include them in the budget. Give the bandits whatever they want”
— Sheikh Gumi tells Nigerians.

The post has generated over 1,000 reposts and likes as of November 27, 2025.

Similarly, popular artist Charles Oputa, also known as Charly Boy, posted the video with the caption:

“Sheikh Gumi
Come make I ask you something, you dey alright? Do you need medical attention?
You dey think before you talk?
You say attacking bandits will be a mistake?
Are you mad?
Are you normal?
Or na bandit spirit don colonize your sense?…….”

His post has also generated over 1,000 reposts and likes as of November 27, 2025.

CLAIM

Video shows Gumi asking the government to include bandits in the budget.

screenshot of the Gumi’s doctored video

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.

Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, a controversial Islamic scholar, has long drawn both support and criticism for his stance on banditry in Nigeria. He has met with armed bandits in the forests and often advocated for dialogue and amnesty rather than purely military action.

Gumi’s position is rooted in his belief that some Fulani herdsmen involved in banditry are victims of circumstance, pushed into criminality by socio-economic pressures rather than inherent criminal intent.

In past interviews, Gumi has always suggested dealing with bandits without using direct physical force or military action.

His comments have drawn strong public criticism, with many accusing him of sympathizing with criminals and undermining national security.

Even though Gumi advocates for dialogue, the viral video claiming he said bandits should be included in the national budget is not part of any verified interview. The circulated clip has been manipulated, with the voice sounding hollow and unusually heavy, exhibiting AI-like inflections inconsistent with his natural speech.

The FactCheckHub subjected the keyframes in the video to Google Reverse Image search and the result shows that the video has been manipulated. It was taken from the exclusive interview held by Channels with Gumi on February 22, 2021.

Analysis of the original interview shows that the statements attributed to him in the viral video were fabricated.

The cleric, in his actual interview, said that Fulani herdsmen involved in banditry are victims of circumstance:

“When I listened to them, I found out that it is a simple case of criminality which turned into banditry, which turned into ethnic war, and some genocide too behind the scene; people don’t know,” Gumi said.

“I think it is a population that is pushed by circumstances into criminality. And this is what we should look at—let’s remove the pressure, let’s remove the things that made them into criminals because we have lived thousands of years without any problems with the nomadic herdsmen. They are peaceful people. But something happened that led them to this.”

The FactCheckHub also extracted the texts from the video and subjected them to Google Search, which confirmed that Gumi did not make the statements circulating online.

VERDICT

The claim that the video shows Gumi asking the government to include bandits in the budget is MISLEADING. The video was doctored from his 2021 interview with Channels TV.

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Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.

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