The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has warned that the party would penalise any member that disrespects its leadership, irrespective of one’s position.
Adamu issued the warning on Saturday in Abuja at a news conference while reacting to the recent outburst of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Tinubu, a two-term governor of Lagos State, is a frontline presidential aspirant of the APC and also one of the party’s leaders.
“Within the last three days, the country, and the world of the social media have been inundaunted with the report of one of our leaders, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, when he went for his campaign in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
“In the course of his address, he went as far as to mention what happened between him and President Muhamadu Buhari.
“He went as far as saying how General 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 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.
“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 reportage and we condemn it in the strongest of terms.
“We do hope that he would never say that kind of thing again,” the APC national chairman said.
Adamu noted that although there was a retraction of the comment by Tinubu, the effort was not adequate.
He said at the time Tinubu made the comments, the party’s presidential screening committee led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun had not presented its report to the party’s leadership.
He said there was, therefore, no justification for the outburst of the former Lagos State governor at the time he spoke.
On whether there would be punitive measures against Tinubu, Adamu said:
“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 is 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’s book, anybody as we watch events as they unfold.”
Adamu dismissed speculations that 10 out of the party’s 23 presidential aspirants had been disqualified.
“I want to say very clearly that no aspirant has been disqualified. It’s like sitting in an examination.
“Even if you pass, there is grading from first-class to ordinary pass, so no aspirant was disqualified”, he said.
