Isa Pantami
By Our Reporter
Days back, the social media was agog with news that Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, was placed on terror watch list by the United States over his alleged ties with Boko Haram founder. Mohammed Yusuf.
Pantami debunked the allegation and added that he had been preaching against the terrorist sect for over 15 years.
It will be recalled that Yusuf, founder of the militant Islamist group was killed in 2009 in Borno State. His death birthed a 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.
The story was so prominent on Twitter that it had with over 18,000 tweets.
While reacting to the development, 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.”
Pantami added that 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 regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), 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 said.
