Sheikh Gumi Walks Back ‘Planned Elimination’ Claims, Attempts to Mislead Media on Actual Remarks

By Our Reporter
Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has moved to deny and downplay claims that he was marked for elimination during recent United States airstrikes in Nigeria, walking back remarks he earlier made publicly that suggested he had been listed for assassination as a Boko Haram figure.

The denial followed widespread circulation of a viral video in which Gumi told his audience that he received a security warning from Abuja on the same morning US forces allegedly carried out airstrikes on terrorist targets. The remarks sparked intense public debate, with several media reports quoting him as saying he was targeted by the United States.

However, in a subsequent interview, Gumi insisted that the reports were false and that his life was not under any current threat: an explanation that contrasts sharply with his own recorded statements.

In the video, which circulated widely on social media, Sheikh Gumi appeared to directly link himself to a list of persons allegedly marked for elimination.

Speaking to his audience, Gumi said he received an early-morning phone call from an unnamed source in Abuja on the day of the strike.

Translated from Hausa, Gumi’s remarks were explicit:

“Let me tell you people something. Did they launch bomb missiles here or not?”

Audience: “Yes, they did.”

Gumi: “The morning they were going to fire that bomb, around 8 a.m., I was on my bed when I got a phone call from Abuja. I won’t tell you who called me. He told me a security briefing was going on and that I was part of the list of Boko Haram members earmarked to be eliminated.”

In the same address, he claimed the information came while a security meeting was ongoing in Abuja and warned northern leaders and clerics to speak up against what he described as “lies.”

The comments were made against the backdrop of US airstrikes carried out on December 25 against members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in parts of Sokoto State.

Following the viral video, several media platforms reported that Gumi had claimed he was targeted for elimination by the United States, allegedly as part of a broader counterterrorism operation.

The reports triggered sharp reactions, given Gumi’s controversial public profile and past engagements with armed groups, as well as the sensitive implications of suggesting that he received a call from someone who was part of a security meeting in Abuja .

But LEADERSHIP on Sunday night, quoted Sheikh Gumi exclusively as flatly denying that he said he was targeted by the US or that there was any current threat to his life.

Describing the reports as “fake news,” Gumi said they were based on a misinterpretation of an old lecture and insisted that he was living peacefully without fear or intimidation.

“There is fake news going viral now that wrongly claims that I said I was targeted by the US attack on Nigerian soil, or something to that effect,” he said. “I never said so, and I also never thought of such a possibility. I am comfortably staying in my home with my family without fear, intimidation, or apprehension.”

Gumi further argued that the remarks being circulated referred to an incident in 2012, when he claimed Boko Haram attempted to assassinate him.

“I believe the source of misinterpretation was a lecture I gave in the mosque on how, in August 2012, I was told that Boko Haram had targeted me for elimination,” he said. “The two people who came to execute the plan were killed instantly when the bomb detonated in their hands near my house.”

He stressed that there was no current threat to his life and challenged media organisations that reported the earlier claims to retract their stories and apologise.

“I didn’t say anyone wanted to eliminate me presently,” Gumi said. “I am a peaceful person and I am living peacefully and my life is not in danger presently.”

Despite the denial, the content of the viral video, spoken in the present tense and explicitly referencing the morning of the alleged US strike, has continued to raise questions about the cleric’s attempt to distance himself from the implications of his own words.

While Gumi now insists he was referring to a decade-old Boko Haram threat, his recorded remarks clearly linked the phone call from Abuja to an ongoing security briefing and a list of persons “earmarked to be eliminated,” coinciding with the day of the US operation.

Observers maintain that the episode has left the media and the public grappling with two conflicting narratives: one delivered directly by Sheikh Gumi in a viral video, and another presented in his later effort to clarify, or retreat from the wider security implications and fallout.