Pantami is a terrorist, Aisha has said, refusing to submit her NIN data.
Newsone reports that a Nigerian socio-political activist, and co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement (BBOG), Aisha Yesufu, on Friday, May 14, resolved not to link her mobile number to the National Identification Number (NIN), a project championed by Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
The Minister has an unassailable link to extremism documented in print, audio, and video in which he demonstrated his avowed sympathy for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Pantami also described Boko Haram terrorists as his “Muslim brothers.”
Newsone reports that Aisha said on Friday that if it cost her not using a phone, she would not let her private data fall into the hands of terror-linked Pantami.
The activist said: “Let me repeat categorically what I have said before,” said Ms Yesufu, “I will not be linking my NIN to my phone number!”
Explaining why, Aisha aid, “I will rather not have a phone line than willingly give my information and have it in the control of a terrorist sympathiser and his cohorts.”
Meanwhile, Newsone reports that despite public opprobrium directed at Mr Pantami over the damning revelations of his association with terrorists and murderous plots to wipe out unbelievers in Jos, President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to back him.
President Buhari had acknowledged that Mr Pantami supported terrorist organisations and incited the Muslim communities against the Christians in the North through the declaration of jihad and fatwa but insisted that the “apology” of the minister was enough to heal the wounds and console the victims of his divisive past.
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had said the position of Buhari’s regime on the extremist views of Mr Pantami would have been different if the communications minister was involved in a certificate forgery like ex-minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun.
Meanwhile, this is coming at weeks after the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, extended the ongoing National Identification Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise till June 30.