The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President
Muhammadu Buhari to sack Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital
economy, over his earlier views supporting terror groups.
The party also asked the Department of State Services (DSS)
to investigate the minister over the comments made in support of groups like
the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
In videos from the 2000s, Pantami, who is a known Islamic
scholar, was reported to have said that while he was against the extremist
anti-western ideologies of Boko Haram, he supports some of what Al-Qaeda and
Taliban had preached.
But the minister recanted the comments on Saturday, saying that he has “changed several positions taken in the past based on new evidence and maturity.”
“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,” he had said.
Despite renouncing the views, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP
spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday that the party is concerned that such
views could compromise sensitive government documents.
“Our party’s position is predicated on the heightening
concerns in the public space and in the international arena of possible
compromises by the communication minister, who has access to sensitive
government documents and information, in addition to data of all individuals
including high profile personalities in the public and private sectors as well
as the traditional and faith-based circles,” Ologbondiyan said.
“The PDP is particularly worried about allegations in the
public suggesting that the minister compromised the NIN (national
identification number) registration exercise by giving room for the
registration of aliens and invaders from other countries as our citizens.”
The party asked the DSS to investigate the alleged
compromise while urging citizens to stay alert.
Like the PDP, many Nigerians have also been calling on the minister to resign.
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