Pantami: Screening committee member lashes out at minister’s critics, DSS

A federal lawmaker has hit out at Nigerians blaming the National Assembly for passing Isa Pantami when he came for screening as a nominee for the minister of communication and digital economy.

Hon. Yusuf Gagdi also said the Department of State Services didn’t send any report to the National Assembly on the past extremist views of Pantami—contrary to what Dennis Amachree, a former DSS director, said recently.

Gagdi, who is the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Navy, said he was amongst those who screened Pantami in 2019, and nobody raised any issue on Pantami’s extremist views.

“What is clear which I stand by is that this pressure which some Nigerians who are privileged to know the commitment and disposition of Pantami when he was 34, why didn’t they bring it up to the attention of the National Assembly during the screening of the ministerial nominees?” the Plateau federal lawmaker said during an interview on the TVC.

“These Nigerians that have access to this very important information, what stopped them from hitting the media with it at the time the screening exercise was being conducted? That was the time the National Assembly had the power to reject nominations of the President or to confirm nominations.

“If the information had gone out and the National Assembly had gone ahead to confirm Pantami, then I will accept responsibility that the National Assembly had done extremely bad,” the lawmaker added.

President Muhammadu Buhari has emphasized his support for Pantami following the backlashes his extremist views of Taliban and Al-Qaeda more than 10 years ago generated after a fake report stating his name is on the US Watchlist.

A motion calling for his sack is already on the floor of the lower chamber which is also already divided on the matter.