Senate reveals reason behind support for Pantami

The Nigerian Senate Sunday explained the rationale behind the lack of indictment of Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications despite widespread uproar over his links with terrorism in the past.

Ajibola Basiru, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, said “there is nothing that disqualified Pantami from contesting an election based on the constitution of Nigeria.”

The upper chamber should not be blamed for clearing Pantami for appointment due to a lack of petition against the embattled minister as of the time of his screening, the lawmaker clarified.

Basiru went on to say, “The Senate can only act based on the information at its disposal as of the time of the screening. We have not acted in any way against the law. No security agency approached us to give us any information that could indict him, both at the time of his appointment and even now.

READ ALSO: Attacks on Pantami targeted at Buhari —Islamic group

“The Senate does not have the power to remove a minister. We can only screen, based on the information available to us and based on the report that we have from the security agencies.

“There is no way we could act based on social media reports. It is only the President who could decide to appoint and remove ministers.

“As far as we are concerned, we only hear people talk about the issue we don’t have any facts about the so-called allegation. We don’t have any facts, we did our job based on facts available to us.’’

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