An Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has hinted on the identity of the abductors of schoolgirls in Zamfara State, saying they were not the bandits he recently engaged with in Zamfara forests.

People and Power had earlier reported that bandits stormed Government Secondary School Jangebe in Talata Mafara Local Government Area around 1am Friday and abducted over 300 female students.

However, Gumi, in a short telephone interview with The Nation, said the abduction was carried out by a splinter group of the Zamfara bandits.

The Islamic scholar, who appeared to have reached out to the bandit leaders he recently met, stated categorically “They are not the ones that abducted the girls. It is a splinter group.”

When asked whether he would be going to Zamfara to meet the bandits for talks and plead for release of the school girls, Sheikh Gumi simply said, “maybe”.

The Islamic scholar has taken his peace message to bandits’ hideouts in Zamfara State where about 500 were reported to have repented in Shinkafi Local Government Area.