Pantami raises fresh concerns over plans to tarnish image

Embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has raised the alarm that some people are planning to release doctored videos aimed at tarnishing his image.

Recall that the Minister has been in the eyes of the storm as calls for his sack by President Muhammadu Buhari from Nigerians over his extremist views sympathetic to groups such as al-Qaeda and Boko Haram as revealed in a leaked video.

In one sermon from the 2000s he said he considered al-Qaeda founder, Osama Bin Laden, a better Muslim than himself, and in another, he said he was happy when infidels were massacred.

Recordings of him expressing these views began circulating on social media last week, leading to calls for his resignation or sacking by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Meanwhile in a statement issued by Pantami’s media aide, Uwa Suleiman, said the move by the unnamed persons was the next stage of the forces against him by his political traducers.

The statement reads in part: “We are in receipt of credible intelligence that the same forces, who have been championing a well-coordinated and richly funded campaign against Pantami, are now unto the next stage of their diabolic project.

“This time round, the forces of evil are shopping for willing partners as well as their usual avenues to release doctored videos purporting to show the minister in an alleged compromising condition as a way of creating injury to his image.

“We are least surprised by this recent move which is a clear intensification of their desperation, having failed in their assault on the personality of the minister, despite their previous efforts.”

Pantami added that he found it necessary to alert the public to the latest plan to dent his image and to warn the perpetrators about the consequences of such action.

“The minister would not sit idly to see his reputation as a community leader, Islamic scholar and public servant being muddled in the mud by paid agents,” the statement added.