US Set To Place Pantami On No-Fly Zone

• The former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, says the United States has started gathering information on the embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
• Amachree further stated that the minister must have been confirmed by the National Assembly due to a lot of factors, including federal character balancing.

The former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, says the United States has started gathering information on the embattled Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.

According to Amachree, the secret police has informed the Federal Government and the National Assembly of the past radical pro-Taliban views of Pantami before his confirmation as minister in 2019.

The former DSS Director made the disclosure while speaking on PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable, on Wednesday.

Amachree further stated that the minister must have been confirmed by the National Assembly due to a lot of factors, including federal character balancing.

“He (Pantami) has just submitted his name into US database. The cataloguing of people is not automatic, it comes in drips and drops. Now, people are talking about him and that has come to the attention of the United States Embassy in Nigeria already.

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“Now, they will do a deeper dive into his background. They will catalogue him and now they will start watching him and if it comes to a very critical level, they will place him on a no-fly zone,” Amachree said.

Pantami, who is a former director-general with the National Information Technology Development Agency, is the only member of the Federal Executive Council from Gombe State.

The embattled minister has been under fire since the visual and audio clips of some of his teachings resurfaced over a decade later, some of which showed he was sympathetic to Islamic extremist sects like Al-Qaeda and Taliban.

Many Nigerians have called for the sacking or resignation of the minister after some of his comments which supported Islamic extremism came to light.

Pantami, an Islamic scholar and cleric, once said, “We are all happy whenever unbelievers are killed.”

The minister also hailed Osama Bin Laden, who orchestrated the terrorist attacks on United States soil on September 11, 2001, saying the terrorist “is a better Muslim than myself.”

Like many Nigerians, the former DSS Director also called for the resignation of the embattled minister.

According to him, the DSS has information on all individuals of interest.

He added that the minister’s past extremist views were communicated to the Federal Government and the legislature.

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