Messrs Abdullahi Adamu (L) and Bola Tinubu
The utterances of Bola Tinubu, an All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential sapirant, about President Muhammadu Buhari were “insulting”, Abdullahi Adamu, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said on Saturday.
He said the remarks showed that Tinubu did not have any “appreciable level of respect” for the office of the president, agding that he might be punished if deemed necessary.
While addressing delegates in Abeokuta, on Thursday, Tinubu had said without him, Buhari would not have won the presidential election in 2015.
The comment sparked varied reactions from Nigerians on the circumstances surrounding the 2015 elections.
However, Tinubu’s campaign organisation said the APC chieftain’s remarks were not meant to disrespect the president.
Speaking with journalists at the APC headquarters in Abuja, on Saturday, Adamu said though, Tinubu’s campaign organisation tried to clarify his statement, the retraction was not enough and lacked sincerity.
Said Adamu: “He 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 unbecoming of 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 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 reportàge and we condemn it in the strongest of terms.
“We do hope that he would never say that kind of thing again, particularly of the APC extraction to make such kind 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 minds”.
Asked if Tinubu would be punished for his utterances, Adamu said as of the time Tinubu spoke, the APC presidential primary screening panel had not presented its report.
Said he: “At the time this event took place, the screening committee had not presented their report to us at all. And was not trying to suggest that anybody was under any threat. So there was no justification for the time that this thing happened.
“If there is the need to penalise any member of the party, not just Bola Tinubu, we will bring him to the party’s book. Anybody, as we watch events as they unfold”.
