Pantami: Your Argument is Pedestrian, Ozekhome tells Presidency

•Insists minister can be prosecuted
•PDP accuses APC leaders of supporting terrorism
•Gombe APC stands in solidarity with minister
•Moghalu alleges double standard

Tobi Soniyi, Chuks Okocha, Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Segun Awofadeji in Gombe

Abuja-based constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has faulted and dismissed as pedestrian, all the arguments put forward by the federal government in defence of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.

In a statement he issued Friday night, Ozekhome argued that even though Pantami committed the alleged terrorist acts before the enactment of the Terrorism (Prevention Amendment) Act 2013, he could be prosecuted under Section 46 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act, 2004 (EFCC Act).

This is as the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leaders of a conspiratorial silence in the face of the worrisome revelation in which Pantami, has been accused of affiliation with terrorist groups.

Again, in defence of Pantami, the Caretaker Chairman of the APC in Gombe State, Mr. Nitte K. Amangal has condemned in strong terms, the sustained campaign of calumny Pantami by people he described as disgruntled and unpatriotic.
However, standing with those against Pantami, a former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a presidential candidate in the last general election, Kingsley Moghalu, has joined the call for the sacking of the minister over his past radical Islamic views and support for the Boko Haram terrorist group.

The calls for President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve Pantami of his appointment as a minister after he admitted making incendiary religious statements sometime between 2000 and 2006, as an Islamic scholar, has continued to gather momentum.
In the inflammatory speeches, he had expressed allegiance to and support for (including sympathy with) the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram terrorist groups.

But the minister claimed he had since changed his views. “Some of the comments I made some years ago that are generating controversies now were based on my understanding of religious issues at the time, and I have changed several positions taken in the past based on new evidence and maturity.”

The Presidency had days ago issued statements supporting and defending the minister.
Quoting copiously from the EFCC Act, which he said was much wider in scope and the definition of terrorism, Ozekhome said: “The combustible and inflammable comments of Pantami no doubt were intended to cause fear or make any government or bodies abandon a standpoint, induce fear in the public or government, etc. He can be charged under the EFCC Act.”

But because he made the statements long before the Terrorism Prevention Act was enacted, the senior lawyer submitted that, “Pantami cannot therefore be prosecuted under the Terrorism Act, because his alleged terrorist acts occurred prior to the enactment of the Terrorism Act. The Terrorism Act does not have a retroactive or retrospective Act.”

Section 36(8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which provides that, “No person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence, and no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty in force at the time the offence was committed”, appears to support Ozekhome’s position.

This, nonetheless, the lawyer said the Presidency missed the point when it rose in defence of Pantami.
“Pantami’s albatross has nothing to do with his alleged effectiveness or efficaciousness in his duties. But, it has everything to do with his dangerous religious antecedents, which on the surface, he says he has renounced, but is still effectively practising in reality.

“Otherwise, why will he invite only a very little known Al-Afrikiy (a wholly Muslim Television station, that broadcasts strictly religious matters) to solely cover a programme of a whole federal government’s activity – the virtual Flag-off capacity development programme on VSAT Installation Skills and TVRO Systems for 600 youths? Why?

“This was only on March 22, 2021. Where were AIT, Channels, NTA, NAN, TVC, ITV, Arise News, SilverBird, Oak TV, or the several Radio Stations across Nigeria? This is Nigerians’ great worry, Mallam Shehu. Do not run away from the substance and pursue the shadow. Please, face the real issues at stake,” je posited.
According to him, Pantami’s religious bigotry, earlier inflammatory speeches in support of and sympathy with terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda, Taliban and Boko Haram (the third group of whose shed blood he described as “our Muslim brothers’ blood”), are the real issues at stake.

He said: “If we go by Garba’s pedestrian argument that woefully fails the acid test of logic and rigorous reasoning, why did Nigerians not pardon brilliant Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who was accused of forging her NYSC Certificate, rather than pressurise and force her to resign her office?
“Why didn’t the Presidency trenchantly defend Mrs Adeosun, a Yoruba woman? Who was more dangerous – a certificate forger, or a terrorist group sympathiser and supporter?

“Why support only Northern-Muslim Pantami? What about the death of one young lad, Sunday Achi, who was said to have been killed due to his incendiary preachment? What about the consequential killings of Christians in Kaduna, Kano, Jos, Maiduguri, Katsina and other parts of the North, occasioned by his bigoted religious teachings?
“What did former CJN, Onnoghen do that made the Presidency rubbish, hound and hunt him out of office in a most premature, disgraceful and unconscionable manner?

“What was the offence of the #EndSars innocent protesters, that were mindlessly and callously mauled down at the Lekki tollgate, even as they were harmlessly waving the Green-White-Green Nigerian flag in a peaceful protest? Why does the Presidency perennially have a “siege mentality”? he asked.

Furthermore, Ozekhome queried: “Why does the Presidency forever play victimhood, when it is always the aggressor? Why do presidential spokespersons always scramble to outdo each other to beat Adolf Hitler’s Goebel to vile propaganda as exhibited during World War II? Why will the Presidency be defending a Minister? What is it hiding? Why weep more than the bereaved? I cannot understand, or can you?”

However, for continuing to support terrorist groups, Ozekhome said Pantami should be charged under section 5(2) of the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act.
His words: “Pantami can be charged for terrorist activities, because terrorism includes ‘support’ for; and ‘support’ includes (in the words of the Act) ‘incitement to commit a terrorist act through the internet or any electronic means or through the use of printed materials or through the dissemination of terrorist information'”.

He, consequently, called on Pantami to honourably resign his ministerial appointment and ‘save this clueless government of further infamy, calumny, obloquy and odium’

He said: “Where he fails or refuses to do so (as I know he would), then President Buhari should sack him. Where Buhari refuses (as I know he would), then, any and every Nigerian or NGO that feels sufficiently concerned and aggrieved can approach the courts and ask for an Order of Mandamus, to compel the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, to prosecute Pantami, by virtue of section 174 of the 199 Constitution.
“Every Nigerian has the right (locus standi) to do this. The Nigerian Supreme Court has laid this to rest as far back as 1981 in the causa celebre (celebrated case) of Senator Abraham Adesanya v. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981) JELR 54679 (SC).”

PDP Accuses APC Leaders of Supporting Terrorism

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its leaders of a conspiratorial silence in the face of the worrisome revelation in which a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has been accused of affiliation with terrorist groups.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP stated that, “Our party asserts that this silence by the APC and its Leaders is a direct confirmation of APC’s support and sympathy for acts of terrorism including the wanton mass killings, banditry, maiming, kidnapping and marauding, which have overtaken our landscape as a nation under its watch.

“We find it unthinkable that the APC as a party, and some of its leaders, who are going about grandstanding on their aspiration to further lead our nation, can be silent in the face of a major threat to our national security as well as our foundation as a nation.

“Our party had always drawn the attention of Nigerians to the manifest relationship and camaraderie between terrorist elements and APC leaders, including those angling to be President,” the PDP stated.
The party urged Nigerians to recall that the PDP had always urged the APC and its leaders to free the nation by returning the political mercenaries and thugs they imported to help them rig the 2019 elections.

Instead, the PDP said the APC has allowed their political mercenaries to continue to maraud the country, with Isa Pantami being accused of using his office to compromise the NIN registration exercise to register such aliens with a view to foisting them on the nation as citizens.
“Our party challenges the APC and its leaders to speak out by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve Isa Pantami of his office without further delay, clean up whatever compromises he may have made in the system and take further steps to protect our nation from terrorist activities,” PDP posited.

Gombe APC Stands in Solidarity with Pantami

The Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe State, Mr. Nitte K. Amangal has condemned the sustained campaign of calumny against the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami by some people he described as disgruntled and unpatriotic.
In a statement on behalf of the APC family in Gombe State, the party chairman expressed the belief that the bad narratives against Pantami were being pushed by enemies of progress of the nation and therefore urged the minister not to be deterred nor succumb to any form of blackmail.

He said: “We commend the presidency and all the people of goodwill for coming out openly and boldly to defend the Minister against baseless accusations and attacks by individuals and organisations who do not mean well for Nigeria.”
According to the statement issued by Sabo Ibrahim, State Publicity Secretary, “We identify and stand in solidarity with our dear brother, Dr. Pantami, who is a very dutiful and faithful member of our great party as well as an illustrious son of Gombe. We, therefore, request all well-meaning party members to do so in the interest of our dear nation.

“We are very pleased and proud of the achievements recorded by Dr. Pantami in his stewardship as federal cabinet member and believe that the smear campaign, which we are sure will not succeed, are not unconnected with the wonderful policies and reforms he has been carrying out in the ICT and digital economy sectors in the overall interest of the nation’s security and wellbeing.”

Moghalu Accuses Presidency of Double Standards

A former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a presidential candidate in the last general election, Kingsley Moghalu, has accused the presidency of double standards in the matter involving the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, over his past radical Islamic views and supporting the Boko Haram terrorist group.
While accusing the presidency of setting two criteria for officials serving in the same government, Moghalu said the minister should just go.

Moghalu, in several tweets yesterday said Pantami should be sacked, wondering how he passed through the Department of State Security (DSS) screening before he became a minister.
The former deputy governor of CBN contended that Pantami should never have scaled the vetting process and approved for that office.

He reiterated that the presidency exhibited double standards as Kemi Adeosun, a former minister of finance, was made to resign for a wrongdoing in her past.

“I have refrained so far from commenting on the #Pantami controversy. From information available: anyone can a mistake, and has the right to recant from it. But when the evidence shows that a serving minister of Nigeria has expressed open support for global terrorist groups, he should never have scaled the vetting process and been approved for that office.
“The implication of the timing of Pantami’s recanting of his views now is that he has been serving as a minister while presumably still harboring those views. His disagreement with Boko Haram does not absolve him of, at the very least moral culpability for supporting Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

“For this reason, Pantami should not continue to serve as a minister. For him to remain in his position, and for presidency to support this, is to tell Nigerians that we have two sets of standards from the very same government, one for the likes of former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun, who had to resign for a wrongdoing in her past, and another for Pantami.

“This position of presidency undermines public accountability, as well as Nigeria’s struggle against Terrorism. He should never have scaled the vetting process and being approved for that office. The implication of the timing of Pantami’s recanting of his views now is that he has been serving as a minister while presumably still harboring those views.

“Two sets of standards from the very same government: one for the likes of former Finance Minister,Kemi Adeosun, who had to resign for a wrongdoing in her past, and another for Pantami. This position of @NGRPresident undermines public accountability, as well as Nigeria’s struggle,” he stated.