Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, a human rights group, has urged the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, to condemn the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban or the Mujahedeen.
This was contained in a statement by HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, who said the minister should condemn the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan to show that he has indeed renounced his extremist views.
The statement was titled, ‘Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Economy should denounce Taliban in Afghanistan to show he has truly renounced his previous media reports of endorsement-: says HURIWA’.
Pantami “should have denounced the Taliban in Afghanistan as a practical demonstration that he has indeed renounced whatever sentiments or support he reportedly expressed in the past for Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
“We urge the minister to use this as a golden opportunity to distance himself from the Taliban so Nigerians believe that he indeed is not playing some tricks on us,” HURIWA said.
Pantami came under fire in April 2021 over his past controversial comments supporting terrorist groups including the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
A former lecturer at the Kaduna State University had alleged that Pantami was the Chief Imam at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University mosque in Bauchi State in 2004 when the Muslim community issued a fatwa on his son, Sunday and was later killed at midnight.
In one of his sermons in the 2000s, Pantami, according to PUNCH, had reportedly prayed, saying, “This jihad is an obligation for every single believer, especially in Nigeria… Oh God, give victory to the Taliban and to al-Qaeda.”
However, the minister denounced his radical comments early this year, saying he now knows better.
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