Controversial Nigerian Islamic cleric Ahmad Gumi barred from 2025 Hajj
An addicted controversial and popular Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, and known to be a negotiator between government and Boko Haram insurgents has been barred from the 2025 Hajj rites.
Penpushing reports that Gumi who was part of the delegation of Islamic scholars charged with guiding and preaching to Nigerian pilgrims during the Hajj, had arrived in Medina on Saturday around 10:30 p.m. alongside other clerics, but upon his arrival at the city’s airport, Saudi immigration officials barred him from entering the country.
The cleric on the trip sponsored by the Nigerian Hajj Commission (NAHCON) for the pilgrimage, while clarifying on why he was barred from entering Mecca, said that although the Saudi government issued him a visa for Hajj, he was denied entry into Mecca to begin Hajj rites.
Penpushing further reports that Gumi, in a post on his Facebook page on Monday, alleged that for some obvious reasons, Saudi authorities were uncomfortable with his presence in Hajj after giving him the visa because of his views on world politics.
The cleric known for his controversial views about banditry in northern Nigeria, said he has returned to Nigeria and now free to attend to his health and farming activities, adding that Nigerian government has pledged to take up the matter
“Thanks to the Nigerian authorities who have pledged to take up the matter immediately with Saudi authorities. That is the value of our cherished freedom and democracy. I’m now free to attend to my health and farming activities. We should continue to pray for the safe return of all pilgrims, peace and prosperity for our dear nation,” he said.
Penpushing also reports that it is recalled that Gumi was in Saudi Arabia in 2010 when he was arrested and detained for over six months by the Saudi government for allegedly relating with Farouk Abdulmutaĺlab, a Nigerian arrested in America for terrorism.
The record has it that it took the intervention of the Nigerian government to secure Gumi’s release after spending many months under house arrest in Mecca, while the arrested Nigerian dubbed the ‘Christmas Bomber,” was accused of attempting to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day 2009.
Penpushing reports that Abdulmutaĺlab, the youngest of 16 children of Umaru Mutallab, a wealthy Nigerian banker and businessman, was on February 16, 2012, sentenced to four life terms plus 50 years without parole, and incarcerated at ADX Florence, the supermax federal prison in Colorado.
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