Garba Shehu, a spokesman to President Muhammadu Buhari, has suggested that the former Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun’s certificate forgery is worse than Minister of Communication, Isa Pantami’s past extremist views on terror organisations.

Shehu said this in response to calls by Nigerians to mete out the same treatment given to Adeosun to Pantami.

The Presidency had defended Pantami, saying he was “young and naive” when he declared support for Al-Qaeda, Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.

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Speaking during a live television programme, Shehu said Pantami’s case would have been “different if he also forged a certificate.”

“You are probing the thoughts, what is called ‘McCarthyism’; you search the inner recesses of the minds of individuals, bring out things they have said or they are about to say, or you think they would say and use that against them.

“If Pantami had forged a certificate before coming into office, the attitude would have been different”, he said.

Shehu stated further that those unwilling to forgive Pantami were the problem.

“I am saying to you that people who stand in criticism of this position of the man who said he had wronged himself, he had wronged the society, and has apologised that he has changed, and they are not willing to forgive to move on; they are the ones who are the problem,” he said.