Following the recent scathing remarks by the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu concerning Muhammadu Buhari, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress has thrown its weight behind the President.
Recall that Tinubu had while speaking to the party’s delegates in Ogun State on Thursday claimed that without him, Buhari would not have become president in 2015.
He also narrated the circumstances that led to the emergence of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the vice president, saying Buhari had offered him the running mate ticket, but some party chieftains opposed it.
Reacting to Tinubu’s comments, Adamu stated that the former Lagos governor’s outburst was unbecoming of a leader of his stature, adding that the party found his latest attack on the president insulting.
The APC national chairman said, “We are saddened by what we saw in the video and pray we don’t see such again. I, as Chairman of this party, have a duty to stand by Mr President.
“Tinubu went as far as saying how Gen Muhammadu Buhari went to him, citing instances of even prostrating in tears begging him to endorse him and to support him for the presidency. He claimed Buhari went to him.
“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 the president says 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, particularly of the APC extraction to make such kinds of comments.”
Asked if the APC would punish the national leader, Adamu said a decision had not been taken.
“If there is a need to punish any member of a party, not just Tinubu, we will bring it to the party’s book. But we are watching,” he said
Meanwhile, Adamu has said that the party may punish Tinubu. The APC chairman disclosed this while briefing journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Saturday.
He said, “At the time this event took place, the screening committee had not presented their report to us at all. And was trying to suggest that anybody was under any threat. So there was no justification for the time that this thing happened.
“This morning we saw some traces of withdrawal of those statements. You see these are statements about his intention of actual action.
“Yes, we can’t say we refuse not to see 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 pull it off from the roof, you can’t replace the same amount 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.
“If there is the need to penalize any member of the party, not just Bola Tinubu, anybody, we will bring him to the party book. Anybody as we watch events as they unfold.”
