Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami, on Monday debunked reports alleging that the United States placed him on a ‘terror watch list’ for alleged ties to terrorism especially with the late Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf.
Pantami, an Islamic cleric, also said he has been preaching against the terrorist sect for over 15 years.
Yusuf, founder of the militant Islamist group was killed in 2009 in Nigeria’s North-East. Yusuf’s death birthed a macabre era of unprecedented uprising; carnage, bombings, kidnappings, amongst other crimes against humanity, even till date, as military forces battle to clear the terrorists out of the entire North-East.
Social media platform, Twitter, was aghast on Monday when the reports published by some news platforms went viral.
While some critics of the Minister have dragged him over the unconfirmed reports and allegations, his supporters have since taken to his defence. As of the time of filing this report, the Minister’s name, Isa Pantami, topped Twitter trends with over 35,000 tweets.
Reacting, the Minister stated: “My lectures against the doctrines and all other evil people have been available for over 15 years, including debates that endangered my life against many criminals in Nigeria. If you can’t understand Hausa, get an objective Hausa speaker to translate for you objectively.”
Continuing, Pantami advised Nigerians who were yet to link their Subscriber Identification Modules with their valid National Identity Numbers to do so before May 6, 2021, adding that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari was poised to expose criminal elements through the NIN-SIM data linkage.
“On the issue of NIN-SIM verification to fight insecurity, there is no going back. Our priority as government based on the provision of our constitution 1999 (as amended) Section 14(2)b is security, not just economy. For sure, no going back at all. Let’s the sponsors continue,” he added.
This story first appeared in PUNCH