The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it may sanction one of its national leader and a presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over his utterances about President Muhammadu Buhari.
The national chairman Senator Abdullahi Adamu, made this known while briefing journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Saturday.
He said the party is aware about Tinubu’s statements issued against Buhari and is set to examine how to punish the former governor.
“We may punish him (Tinubu) for his utterances against the President,” Adamu stated.
Recall that Tinubu while on a visit to party delegates in Ogun State on Thursday, boasted about helping Buhari win election in 2015. The former governor said he brought Buhari out of his political retirement and made him the President.
The comments have since been met with widespread criticism as many had said that he may have decided to go for broke, after sensing he may be losing the opportunity to achieve his ‘lifelong ambition’ to be president of Nigeria.
Tinubu has also issued two press statements since making the comments. The New Diplomat had reported that the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation, in a statement signed by the campaign Director of Media & Communications, Bayo Onanuga, on Friday, clarified that the former governor’s statement were not aimed at ridiculing anyone but to campaign to the delegates about how he brought his political clout and strategic skills to assist individuals, groups and tendencies in the party to gain political power.
In another statement, Tinubu said he has great respect for the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and he will never denigrate him.
In the statement which he personally signed, he blamed the controversies trailing his comment on alleged willful misrepresentation of what he said by his political opponents who “hopes that such a narrative would convince President Buhari to oppose my aspirations regarding the approaching primary.”
“Let me also erase any doubt. My respect and regard for President Buhari as Commander-in-Chief of this nation and as a person are high and unfailing. I shall never denigrate him.
“I certainly did not do so in Abeokuta. We have been political partners for a long time and I hope that our partnership continues well into the future. I would do nothing to jeopardise it. I believe our party is the best hope for the nation to right itself. I believe I have a future role larger than the one I now have. I also believe President Buhari has a continuing and important role to play even after his tenure as president is over,” Tinubu said in the statement.
