The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken exception to comments credited to its National Leader and presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, which it views as disparaging to President Muhammadu Buhari.
There are fears that the leadership of the party may punish Tinubu over his utterances against the President.
The National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, gave the hint while briefing journalists at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Saturday.
Tinubu was seen in a video on Tuesday stressing how he helped Buhari and other APC leaders to win elections in 2015.
Tinubu, who is the National Leader of APC, has apologized, and issued a statement to clarify his reported outburst, which happened in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
But briefing newsmen on Saturday at the National Secretariat of APC, Senator Adamu described Tinubu as not being enough.
“He (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.
Adamu said: “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. Although 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 circumstance 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 reportage, 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. Yes, yesterday we saw some part of a retraction, but that effort is not adequate. It is not sincere. It is not in-depth enough. It doesn’t wipe out the impression that that event has left in our mind,” he said.
Asked whether there would be punishment for Tinubu, Adamu 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 that 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!
“If there is the need to penalise 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.”
On the controversy surrounding statutory delegates, the APC national chairman said the “matter is in court. Convention statutory delegates are excluded.”
On disqualified presidential aspirants, he said: “I want to say very clearly that no aspirant has been disqualified. It’s like sitting in an exam. Even if you pass there is grading from first-class to ordinary pass. So no aspirant was disqualified. Incidentally, the president has invited all of them to a dinner today (Saturday).”