Nigeria: No Evidence Nigeria's Controversial Islamic Cleric Sheikh Gumi Told Kwara State Government to 'Accept Sharia Law'

17 February 2026
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Precious Ewuji

No evidence Nigeria's controversial Islamic cleric Sheikh Gumi told Kwara state government to 'accept Sharia law'

IN SHORT: Facebook posts claim that Islamic cleric Sheikh Gumi urged the Kwara state government to adopt sharia law. However, there is no evidence for this.

Sheikh Gumi has suggested that Kwara state should accept sharia law "for peace to reign", according to several Facebook posts circulating in Nigeria.

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Ahmad Gumi is an Islamic cleric who has faced significant scrutiny in light of US military actions in Sokoto state in December 2025 and his involvement in the discourse surrounding Nigeria's banditry crisis.

Sharia law is religious law based on the teachings of the Qur'an and the sayings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

One post making the claim, dated 9 February 2026, features a video of a man speaking in English and overlaid with the images of Gumi and Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the Kwara state governor.

In the 29-second video, the man says, in part: "Gumi sends a strong message to the Kwara state government, telling them to accept sharia law for peace to reign. It's totally disgraceful that a particular religion in Nigeria is pushing the whole nation to obey their own law."

More instances of the claim can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

On 3 February, armed men killed about 200 people in Woro, a Muslim-majority community in Kwara state.

Kwara, in Nigeria's north central zone, has been grappling with insecurity and banditry attacks.

But did Gumi suggest that the state should accept sharia law? We checked.

No evidence for statement

First, we checked Gumi's official Facebook page, as that is where he shares most of his opinions. If Gumi really said Kwara should accept sharia law, it is likely to have been posted on his page. But we found nothing like it.

We also searched online to see if any trustworthy news sources had reported on such a statement from Gumi but found nothing. A statement from a high-profile cleric on such a sensitive subject would have received significant national news coverage.

There is no evidence to suggest that Gumi said the Kwara state government should accept sharia law.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
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