“I have been marked for elimination as part of foreign counterterrorism agenda” – Gumi

Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has claimed that security sources in Abuja warned him that his name had been listed among individuals allegedly marked for elimination in connection with the Boko Haram insurgency.

Gumi made the allegation while addressing worshippers, saying he received an early-morning phone call from a senior security source who informed him that his name had surfaced during a high-level security meeting.

“They called me from Abuja and said there was a security meeting,” the cleric said. “I was told that I have been marked for elimination. And who are Boko Haram?”

According to him, the caller said his name was among those allegedly identified for assassination, a development he linked to foreign counterterrorism actions and narratives.

Gumi went further to accuse the United States of responsibility for the rise of Boko Haram, arguing that the group emerged from foreign interventions purportedly aimed at fighting terrorism.

“Even the Americans say they came to fight terrorists. So who are the terrorists?” he asked. “They are the ones.”

In a video circulating on social media, the cleric claimed he was informed by a top official that he had been marked by the United States for possible elimination through an American airstrike, allegedly as part of Boko Haram.

“They are the ones doing it — Boko Haram,” he said. “You will hear something. Won’t they put bomb here?”

Gumi also blamed policies he attributed to US President Donald Trump for worsening Nigeria’s insecurity and deepening social and religious divisions, accusing Nigerian political and religious leaders of remaining silent as the country’s problems escalated.

According to him, Nigeria has become increasingly fragmented due to foreign-backed funding and narratives that oppress citizens and present Christians as the sole victims of insecurity, thereby fuelling mistrust among communities.

“Because of lies, violence has come,” Gumi said. “But where are the leaders? What did they do? Where are the scholars? Everyone has gone to hide in their corners.”

He argued that no sovereign nation would accept external interference designed to divide its population along religious or social lines, insisting that such actions undermine national unity.

“Which country would agree to bring something just to divide its people?” he asked. “No country would accept that. It would either insist on unity or reject it entirely.”

The cleric accused political and religious elites of abandoning meaningful engagement and dialogue, saying Nigerians were left with empty rhetoric rather than solutions, as hardship, oppression and denial of rights continued.

“You brought hardship, you broke us, you oppressed us, you denied us our rights,” he said, lamenting what he described as the labeling of parts of Nigeria along religious lines.

Gumi warned that fear, silence and growing divisions were dragging the country deeper into crisis, cautioning that continued inaction by leaders and clerics would only worsen Nigeria’s challenges.

“This is the situation we are in,” he said. “It is dragging the country down.”