The Muslims Rights Concern (MURIC), an Islamic human rights organisation, has described the report ran by a news site, Independent Newspaper on April 12 linking Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami to Boko Haram terrorists group as fake news.
A statement by MURIC Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, said this in a statement in Abuja Tuesday.
Professor Akintola said: “Our attention has been drawn to a trending report that Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy is on the U.S. watch list for having links with terrorists.
“It is fake news. It is a lie from the pit of Jahannam.
“It is a product of malice, envy and evil desire concocted in the laboratory of the notorious pull him down syndrome.
“It exists only in the imagination of the authors of the evil plan; it will not stand the test of authenticity.”
The MURIC director praised the expertise and dedication of Dr Pantami to his duties as minister and member of Federal Executive Council.
“Pantami is an honest, diligent and uncommon Islamic scholar whose ability to combine his discipline with digital expertise has raised him above his peers and made him an indispensable asset to this country.
“It is only people with diseased minds, who do not want progress for Nigeria that can make such malicious yet false allegation against him.
“We have been reading Pantami’s articles and watching his lecture videos long before he became minister, and on no occasion did he pour encomiums on terrorists or their aides.
“On the contrary, he always condemned violence and terrorism. Therefore, those who claim that he ‘spoke glowingly’ of associates of terrorist leaders are apostles of Lucifer and pathological liars,” Professor Akintola said.
He said that the perpetrators of the fake news were aimed at distracting the minister from carry out his official duty.
He said: “We believe that Pantami’s detractors are after something else.
“Otherwise the threat issued by Abubakar Shekau, current leader of Boko Haram against Pantami would have been enough to dissuade them from embarking on this futile attempt at damaging the reputation of a great scholar and a patriot.
“We strongly suspect that those behind the fake news are jittery over the minister’s revolutionary ideas, particularly the ongoing linkage of the NIN with SIM cards.
”This development is believed to be giving criminals sleepless nights as it is capable of exposing their identities,” he said.
He advised Pantami to ignore perpetrators of the fake news and remain focused on his job of delivering changes in the communications system in the country.
Akintola said: “The fact that the U.S. embassy has dissociated itself from the allegation thereby giving the minister a clean bill of health is didactic and reassuring.”
