{"id":71033,"date":"2019-12-22T16:45:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T15:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=71033"},"modified":"2019-12-22T16:45:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T15:45:03","slug":"watchlist-fg-says-u-s-misinformed-on-el-zakzaky-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/watchlist-fg-says-u-s-misinformed-on-el-zakzaky-others\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCHLIST: FG Says U.S Misinformed On El-Zakzaky, Others"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said the detention of leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzaky, was \u201cpurely a criminal matter, which is being handled by a court of competent jurisdiction.\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The Minister said while the government accepted constructive criticism from any quarter, it \u201crejects any attempt to sow the seed of mistrust among the various religious groups in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed, on behalf of the Buhari-led administration, responded to a recent placement of Nigeria and six other countries on a special watch-list of states that engage in, or tolerate, \u201cthe severe violation of religious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Federal Government on Sunday rejected the designation, describing it as \u201cmisleading.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the government, the United States \u201cfell for the antics of the discontented and the unpatriotic few\u201d who will not hesitate to hang Nigeria out to dry on the altar of their inordinate ambition and their sheer animosity towards the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.<\/p>\n

Mohammed, in a statement issued in Abuja, said the deliberate effort to give religious coloration to the farmer-herder clashes and, in particular, the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, had undoubtedly helped to mislead the US.<\/p>\n

While describing the \u201ciniquitous tag\u201d as stemming from \u201can orchestrated narrative that has long been discredited,\u201d he said the good people of Nigeria enjoy unfettered freedom to practice their religion.<\/p>\n

Mohammed blamed the tag on \u201cfailed politicians and disgruntled elements \u2014 some of them supposedly respected leaders \u2014 for latching on to religion as their trump card, especially in the run up to the 2019 general elections.<\/p>\n

He said it was \u201cunfortunate that the US fell for the antics of the discontented and the unpatriotic\u201d few who will not hesitate to hang Nigeria out to dry on the altar of their inordinate ambition and their sheer animosity towards the Buhari administration.<\/p>\n

The Minister said the Nigerian government was acutely aware of how the political opposition, in particular, had spared no resources in deriving political capital from the various security challenges in the country.<\/p>\n

The statement reads in part, \u201cThe deliberate effort to give religious coloration to the farmer-herder clashes and the Boko Haram insurgency, in particular, has undoubtedly helped to mislead the US into concluding that the government is doing little or nothing to guarantee religious freedom in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201dBut, as we have always said, the farmer-herder clashes have nothing to do with religion but everything to do with environmental and socio-economic realities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe religious tag given to the clashes has no basis in fact, but is very convenient for those who will very easily give the dog a bad name just to hang it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn its part, the Boko Haram terrorists are extreme fanatics who do not subscribe to the tenets of any religion, in spite of their pretense to Islamic adherence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed said the good news was that the Buhari regime had succeeded in curbing the farmer-herder clashes through the implementation of proactive and multi-dimensional strategy, \u201cwhich is yielding remarkable results, just as it has largely defeated the Boko Haram insurgency.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said the detention of leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzaky, was \u201cpurely a criminal matter, which is being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\nWATCHLIST: FG Says U.S Misinformed On El-Zakzaky, Others - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/watchlist-fg-says-u-s-misinformed-on-el-zakzaky-others\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WATCHLIST: FG Says U.S Misinformed On El-Zakzaky, Others - 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