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Not sacking Pantami reeks of double standards —Moghalu

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Kingsley Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and ex-presidential candidate, has criticised the Federal Government for what he said is its dishonesty and double standards over the ongoing saga involving Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

Moghalu, who made his stance known via a series of tweets on Saturday, drew a corollary with the events that surrounded the resignation of former Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun.

Pantami should not continue to serve as a Minister. For him to remain in his position, and for Presidency to support this, is to tell Nigerians that we have two sets of standards from the very same government, one for the likes of former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun who had to resign for wrongdoing in her past, and another for Pantami,” the former Presidential candidate stated.

He further explained that Pantami should never have been emerged as a Minister, if he had been properly vetted during screenings for the position.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Pantami has faced nationwide criticism over incendiary sermons in the past which reportedly elicited the death of thousands on non-Muslims while sympathizing with terror groups such as Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram.

READ ALSO: Isa Ali Pantami – The pantomime within and my people of Habib

However, Moghalu believes that the timing of Pantami’s recants means that he must have been harbouring those views while serving as minister.

“I have refrained so far from commenting on the #Pantami controversy. From information available: anyone can a mistake, and has the right to recant from it.

“But when the evidence shows that a serving minister of Nigeria has expressed open support for global terrorist groups, he should never have scaled the vetting process and been approved for that office,” he tweeted.

“The implication of the timing of Pantami’s recanting of his views now is that he has been serving as a minister while presumably still harbouring those views. His disagreement with Boko Haram does not absolve him of, at the very least moral culpability for supporting Al Qaeda and the Taliban,” Moghalu said.

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