A former spokesman of former Vice President Namadi Sambo, Umar Sani, has claimed that Sheikh Ahmad Gumi was deported from Saudi Arabia for dining with Yemeni religious leaders.
Sani said Saudi Arabia handed Gumi a ten-year ban from entering the country, as the Yemeni religious leaders he met were at odds with the Saudi government.
Naijaonpoint reported that Sheikh Gumi was denied permission to perform Hajj and deported to Nigeria by the Saudi government.
On his 𝕏 handle on Monday, Sani further revealed that the ten-year ban handed to Gumi ended in 2024, but he was not aware that the Saudi authority extended it by five years.
He wrote: “Sheikh Ahmad Mahmud Gumi was not deported due to alleged ties with bandits in Nigeria. Rather, his issues with the Saudi authorities stemmed from a visit to Yemen, where he met with religious leaders who are at odds with the Saudi government. After his trip to Yemen, he stopped in Saudi Arabia to perform the lesser pilgrimage (Umrah), during which he was arrested and investigated. He was eventually released in 2014 and issued a ten-year entry ban.
“Although that ban officially expired last year, an additional five years was reportedly added without any formal communication to him. His recent attempt to perform Hajj was based on the assumption that the original ban had been lifted. He only discovered the extension of the ban upon arrival at the airport.”