The national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has described as unacceptable the outburst of a national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Noting that the apology later offered by Mr Tinubu was not enough, the party said it may punish the presidential aspirant for the outburst.
Adamu stated, “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 thing 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 minds.”
On whether there would be punitive measures against Tinubu, the chairman 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.”