Our Reporter, Abuja
The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday reviewed the statement attributed to its National Leader and Presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on President Muhammadu Buhari. The party expressed disappointment that Tinubu could stoop so low to talk down on the President and leader of his party.
Tinubu had on Thursday in Abeokuta, Ogun State called President Buhari out, stating how he made him President.
He also recounted how many times Buhari contested and lost, until when he (Tinubu) came to his rescue in 2015, and he was elected President.
The statement of the former Lagos State governor has drawn widespread attention, with the party stating that he is not beyond discipline.
The APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu said no apology of Tinubu can cover the embarrassment suffered by President Buhari.
Briefing the media on the issue, he said, “Within the last three days, the country, and the world of the social media have been inundated with the report of one of our leaders, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State, when he went for his campaign in Ogun – Abeokuta. In the course of his address, he went as far as to mention what happened between him and President Muhammadu Buhari. He went as far as to tell his audience how Buhari went to him, even prostrating in tears, begging him to endorse him for the presidency. He claimed Buhari went to him. The words in Youruba… the interpretation was very very insulting, very very unbecoming of a person of that standing to do what he did to a sitting president produced by the votes of APC. It is amazing how a fellow APC person can make that kind of comments about the president.
“We take exception to this, and this doesn’t show any appreciable level of respect for the office of Mr President and the person of Mr President. Therefore, we want to make it public that we are saddened about the audio and video in that reportage, and we condemn it in the strongest terms… for those of APC extraction to make those kinds of unbecoming comments. Between yesterday and this morning it was retracted but that effort is not adequate, it doesn’t wipe out the impression that event has left in our minds. This is our position. I, as chairman of the ruling party has the duty to come out and stand by our government, to stand by our president.”
Asked if he APC National Leader would be punished, Adamu said, “I don’t want to take this together because they are mischief laden. I don’t want to take the primary screening to answer this question because doing so is finding the way to justify, give some reasons that may have caused what he did. For one thing I know at the time this event took place the screening committee had not made the report to us at all.
“The question of punitive measure yes and no. This morning we saw some traces of withdrawal statements. You see these are statements that can emerge not with the intention of the actual actions. So yes, we can’t say we don’t see in the papers what was reported. It happened. What is out is out. It is not an apology; it is trying to retract. We will be on the watch…for us to penalise any member of the party not just Bola Tinubu, anybody. We will watch events as they unfold.”
The APC National Chairman also used the opportunity to speak on statutory delegates, which have become an issue of litigation.
He said, “Well, I am a lawyer, we have served notice of appeal and the matter is in the court and as far as we are concerned, this convention is concerned, statutory delegates are excluded.”
