The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack his Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali-Pantami over his sympathy for Al-Queada and Taliban.
A statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and National Media Affairs Director Zainab Yusuf, urged Buhari to dismiss Pantami for his affinity and endorsement of global jihadist movement.
The statement reads: “It is in the interest of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to clear suspicions that it is a sympathiser of international terrorism by sacking Pantami who has admitted espousing the teachings of Al- Queada and Taliban previously.”
According to HURIWA, Buhari would be sued to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he refuses to do the right thing. It said patriotic groups could canvass claims that the mass killings of Christians in the North by armed herdsmen and Islamists were tolerated by the President because of his decision to keep a man who had confessed to have backed Al- Queada and Taliban.
It appealed to members of the Civil Rights Advocacy movements in Nigeria to send petitions to the United States Congress to designate President Buhari’s administration as a sympathiser of AlQaeda and Taliban, and then impose specific sanctions on the president and his ministers.
The group insisted that the only way Nigerians can heave a sigh of relief is for Pantami to be dismissed from office.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has asked Pantami to resign immediately.
A statement by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri, said the governor spoke in an interview with the African Independent Television (AIT) in Port Harcourt.
Wike said Pantami ought to have resigned from his position immediately information about his extremist views became a matter of public discourse.
He described as worrisome the government’s decision to remain mute as worrisome.
“I don’t understand why a reasonable government would allow such a person be in the cabinet,” he added.
According to the governor, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government is known for its proclivity to shield persons of questionable characters, even when the country’s secret service presents overwhelming evidence against such individuals.