The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed willingness to punish Bola Tinubu, former Lagos State governor and a presidential aspirant on the platform of the party over utterances against President Muhamadu Buhari.
Abdullahi Adamu APC national chairman gave this indication while briefing journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Saturday.
Tinubu had at a meeting with APC delegates in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital said it was pay back time having facilitated the emergence of Buhari and Osinbajo as Vice President in the 2015 general election.
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He said: “If not for me that stood behind Buhari he wouldn’t have become the president. He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third time, he failed, he even wept on a national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again, I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas and he agreed.”
The former Lagos state governor has issued a statement to apologise to the President but Adamu said apology tendered by Tinubu is not enough as it has not erased the impression created in the minds of many.
“He went as far as saying how Muhammadu Buhari went to him, citing instances of even prostrating in tears begging him to endorse him and to support him for the presidency.
“His utterances are very very insulting. It’s very very unbecoming for a person of that standing to do what he did to the sitting president of the federal republic of Nigeria, the President produced by the votes of the APC. Though he is the president, he belongs to everybody. It is amazing how a fellow APC person would make that kind of comment in that kind of circumstances about the president.
“We take exception to this. It has shown that he does not show any appreciable level of respect for the office of Mr. President. Therefore we want to make it public that we are saddened by what we saw in the video, in that reportàge and we condemn it in the strongest of terms.
“We do hope that he would never say that kind of again. Yesterday we saw some part of a retraction but that effort is not adequate. It is not sincere. It doesn’t wipe out the impression that that event has left in our minds,” he said.
When asked whether there would be punitive measures against Tinubu, Adamu said: “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.
“This morning we saw some traces of withdrawal of those statements. You see these are statements of his intention of actual action. Yes, we can’t say we refuse not seeing on the papers. It happened. He said he has the greatest respect for the president.
“You see in Hausa there is a proverb that once you take hold of any amount of grass from a thatched house and you pulled it off from the roof, you can’t replace the same number of grass. What is out is out. What he did say was not an apology. It’s just like trying to retract and you say I didn’t mean this. It’s a problem of misinterpretation. It is not a regret.”
Adamu who said that statutory delegates are not going to vote at the presidential primary election, also stressed no apirant for the party’s ticket to the exalted office has been disqualified as reported in the media.
“The matter (statutory delegates) is in the court and as far as this convention is concerned, statutory delegates are excluded.
“I want to say very clearly that no aspirant has been disqualified. Interestingly, President Muhamadu Buhari has invited them to the villa for a dinner today. He will be interacting with all of them today,” he stated.
