Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has denied reports that the United States allegedly placed him on a ‘terror watch list’ for alleged ties with the late Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yusuf. He noted that he has been preaching against Boko Haram, its ideologies, doctrines, and practices for the past 15 years. Pantami, an Islamic cleric, was alleged in a viral report to have been a mentor to the founder of the militant Islamist group, who was killed in 2009 in the North-East.
Yusuf’s death triggered a chain of violent activities, including bombings, kidnappings, and hostage-taking among others that have led to massive death and destructions of properties worth billions of naira in the North-East.
Social media, especially Twitter, was awash on Monday by reports published by some news platforms alleging the Ministers’ close ties with Boko Haram and some Al-Qaeda leaders.
Some of the leading platforms have however retracted the report and apologized to the Minister.
Meanwhile, the Minister has reacted through his Twitter page saying: “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.”