Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to expose and boot out all sympathisers of the ideals of terrorism in his government.
HURIWA said Buhari should urgently sack the Communications and Digital Economy Minister, Isa Ali Pantami following his comments in a viral video, which portrayed him as a sympathizer of the global terrorist sect, Al-Qaeda.
In a statement by its Executive Director, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the organisation said Buhari should be courageous to ensure the arrest and prosecution of terrorists and bandits such as armed Fulani herdsmen “who are about pushing Nigeria into a state of civil war by their unbridled quest to displace farmers all over the country.”
“It is unimaginable that a government that is totally intolerant of divergent opinions and has done quite a lot to use brute force of the armed police and other security forces to physically crush supporters of such moderate Islamic groups like the Islamic Movement of Nigeria is the same administration that harbours someone who had indeed espoused the teachings of such global terrorism outlaws like the masterminds of Al-Qaeda global Jihadists movements.
“Ironically, after this same person has been exposed and his past misdeeds made abundantly open, President Muhammadu Buhari with all his holier-than-thou attitudes has refused to dismiss this self-confessed supporter of Al-Qaeda.
“Why did this government rush to classify the self-determination campaigners like the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, as a terrorist group whereas at the most strategic centre of administration, the country has someone who even by his belated admission, had previously supported international terrorists?.
“How does the Nigerian government want decent countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the European Union to have confidence in this same government under whose watch, a self-confessed supporter of the teachings of Al-Qaeda is the Minister of Communications and Digital economy?”
“This is hypocrisy raised to power two. The Minister of Communications and Digital economy, Sheikh Pantami must be dismissed forthwith unless the Muhammadu Buhari administration has now accepted to be a sympathizer of Al-Qaeda in which case, Nigerians should in their numbers pour out on the streets and force the entire federal government of President Muhammadu Buhari to resign immediately,” the statement read.
According to Onwubiko, Nigerians must not allow themselves to be deceived into accepting “the belated statement of remorse made by the minister who had earlier threatened to sue a newspaper that had linked him up to some of the teachings that glorify the global Jihadist movements.”