US Places Buhari's Minister, Isa Pantami On Terror Sponsor Watchlist

 

Nigeria's Minister of Com­munications and Digital Economy, Alhaji Isa Ali Ibrahim, also known as Sheikh Pantami has been placed on US terror sponsor watchlist, according to Independent Nigeria.

 

Ibrahim, also the Dep­uty Secretary General of the Supreme Sharia Council in Nigeria and a former student of Salafist ideologies, was trained in Saudi Arabia and the Mid­dle East with other top Is­lamic jihadists.

 

Before his appointment as a minister, Ibrahim was a known Islamic preacher and held what was termed ‘dangerous views’ against the American govern­ment with allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

 

According to a report, the minister was said to be a very close confidant of the late Mohammed Yusuf, the killed leader of Boko Haram with whom he allegedly shared jihad­ist doctrines.

 

According to Western Intelligence, the minister had ties with Abu Quata­da al Falasimi and other Al-Qaeda leaders that he revered and spoke glow­ingly of in several of his videos on YouTube.

 

In one of his narratives, Ibrahim had eulogised Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi as a great leader, who joined Al-Qaeda group after em­igrating to Afghanistan at the end of the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Centre in America.

 

This is what he wrote about Abu Musab: “Un­der the Osama’s leader­ship, he became the unit commander of army of AlQaeda with the support of the Commander of the loyal Maula Umar (Tali­ban leader)."