National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Adamu, has warned all presidential aspirants on the platform of the APC to desist from attacking President Muhammadu Buhari.

Adamu also said the party took exception to the recent comments by former Lagos State governor and presidential aspirant, Bola Tinubu, against the president.

He condemned the comments and warned that the party would take punitive action against any of the aspirants who makes scathing comments against Buhari.

The national chairman spoke while addressing journalists at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Saturday.

Tinubu had on Thursday while addressing APC delegates in Ogun State, recounted how he helped to make Buhari president in 2015.

“If not for me that stood behind Buhari he wouldn’t have become the president,” said Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state.

“He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third, he failed, he even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again, I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas and he agreed.

“Since he became the president, I have never got ministerial slots, I didn’t collect any contract, I have never begged for anything from him, it is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn.”

However, a day after, Tinubu, in a statement, tried to retract what he said, adding that he had the greatest respect for the president.

Not enough

Adamu said the attempt at retracting the statement was not enough, adding that the deed had been done.

“It is a bit amazing, how a fellow APC person could make those kinds of comments in that circumstance about the president. We take exception to this. It does not show any appreciable level of respect.

“Therefore, without any equivocation whatsoever, 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 we never proceed in that kind of thing again on the screen, either on social media or on television or hear that kind of thing on radio or any public appearance, particularly those of the APC extraction, to make that kind of comment that is unbecoming.

“Yes, we saw some effort to retract. That effort is not adequate, if it was sincere, it is not in-depth enough. It does not whip off the negative impression that the event has left in our minds. This is our position. I, as the chairman, have the duty to stand by our party, by our president to safeguard our party’s integrity and integrity of our government,” he said.

He said the party will take punitive action against aspirants making any negative comments against the president.

“We will be on the watch out, if there is a need to penalise anybody—not just Bola Tinubu, every member,” Adamu said.

PT