The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has drummed support for the embattled Minister of Communication and Digital Planning, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami amidst calls for his resignation over alleged links to international terror group(s).
In a statement by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC described calls for Pantami’s resignation as a campaign of calumny sponsored by forces against the NIN policy.
According to MURIC, the NIN policy is geared towards checkmating Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, criminals in general and political IDPs (Internally Displaced Politicians) who have therefore “become jittery ever since the NIN policy was introduced … They are among those who stand to benefit from Pantami’s resignation. As for the political IDPs, their motive is to ensure that no project initiated by the current administration succeeds.”
Pantami, MURIC said, should be allowed to finish what he started.
Pantami after a series of denials, said on Saturday that he made pro-terrorist statements long ago when he was much younger:
“I was young when I made some of the comments. I was in university, some of the comments were made when I was a teenager. I started preaching when I was 13; many scholars and individuals did not understand some of the international events and therefore took some positions based on their understanding. Some have come to change their positions later.”
Reacting to the statement, MURIC wondered why Pantami’s critics would give so much weight to pronouncements made by a teenager and those made in the days of students’ unionism.
The Muslim body vowed to produce recent anti-terrorism videos made by Pantami.
The statement added, “If they have evidence of speeches delivered 35 years ago when Pantami was a teenager, we have indubitable proof of more recent anti-terrorism speeches, particularly his public debates with the late Boko Haram leader, Muhammad Yusuf, where the minister made mincemeat of the arguments of Muhammad Yusuf. But our strongest evidence is the threat made by Shekau, the current leader of Boko Haram, to kill Pantami.
MURIC noted too that Pantami did not commit any official misconduct, nor has he abused his office for corrupt enrichment, adding that he could have resigned the moment his life was threatened by the Boko Haram leader in February 2021, but that he didn’t because he was determined to finish the NIN scheme which he initiated knowing as he does that his intiative is crucial to the defeat of insurgency and terrorism.
Therefore, “We call on every Nigerian who still has some modicum of our values and norms: hard work, truthfulness, transparency and accountability to stand in solidarity with the honourable minister. We must not collectively hand over one of the few symbols of our pride to people who believe in easy money, people who see fraud as a necessity of life, people who believe in making their own wealth by causing hardship, pain and agony for others…”
