The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI),
top Islamic body, has refuted allegations linking it and Isa Pantami, minister
of communications and digital economy, to the death of Patrick Yakowa,
ex-governor of Kaduna state.
The JNI said on Friday that such
reports are “disheartening” and “disgusting”, adding that it never held a
meeting on such a matter when Yakowa was alive.
An unverified document that has
gone viral claims the embattled minister allegedly chaired a JNI meeting where
plans were alleged to have been made to kill Yakowa.
The document is being shared as a
communique adopted at the zonal meeting held in Bauchi in 2010, two years
before the former governor died in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa alongside
Owoye Azazi, former national security adviser (NSA).
It emerged amid the controversy
generated by the minister’s past extremist views in support of terror groups
which he has recanted.
In a statement signed by Khalid
Aliyu, its secretary-general, JNI said the allegations are designed to tarnish
its image and that of other Muslim organisations.
“The JNI under the leadership of
His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and
President General of the JNI, was taken aback by the desperation of some
disgruntled elements who in their desperate attempt to smear the image of the
Minister of Communication and Digital Economy drag the name of the JNI as being
part of an alleged plot to assassinate the late Governor Yakowa of Kaduna
state,” the organisation said.
“To start with, how could Sheikh Pantami chair
a JNI meeting while he was not one of its leaders either at the National or
state levels? What could have necessitated the combination of Bauchi, Plateau,
Niger and Kaduna states from different geo-political zones in the meeting? If
Yakowa was vehemently hated by the Muslims and were desperately trying to ‘get
rid’ of him. How did he win the 2011 elections in a Muslim dominated state of
Kaduna where a Muslim-Muslim ticket recently sailed through? Who voted him in?
“The so-called pieces of minutes
shared by the media to further confuse and manipulate an average Nigerian’s
mind into believing this orchestrated lie has further confirmed the desperation
of the perpetrators. It is very perplexing and heart-rending that minutes of an
assassination plot could be written and kept. How disheartening and disgusting!
“We thought the plot against
Sheikh Pantami is politically motivated, but surprisingly it is assuming to be
a more sinister dimension born out of a well thought-out scheme designed to
smear and tarnish the image and the good name of the JNI and other Muslim
organizations.
“Considering the various concerns
raised by many citizens, vis’-a’- vis the attendant consequence of the
scandalous allegation, we wish to place on record and for posterity that such
never occurred and the JNI does not operate in such a dubious manner. We are at
loss as to why is this allegation coming up just now, many years after the
demise of Mr Yakowa?”
JNI asked security agencies to
immediately investigate the allegation and fish out those behind it.
“This should be treated with
utmost urgency and the JNI is ready to fully cooperate with the security
agencies in this regard,” it added.
John Joseph Hayab, chairman of
the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna, who served as religious
affairs adviser to Yakowa, had also dismissed the allegations.
He had said, “there is no point,
now or later, to open up what will not bring back Yakowa but rather open up old
wounds in a very controversial manner.”
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