PUNCH
The ruling All Progressives Congress on Tuesday night alleged that former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal’s claim that Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, won the 2023 presidential election was bore out of sentiment.
The statement was a reaction to Babachir’s claim that the data from independent sources indicated Obi had majority votes while Atiku came second in the election.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu came a distant third in the poll.
But the ruling APC disclosed that it was obvious the former SGF was still licking his wounds after the former Lagos governor settled for Kashim Shettima during the search for a capable vice president-elect in the build-up to the February poll.
In a statement released in Abuja on Tuesday night, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, warned that aside from being in need of counselling, Babachir ought to have known that making utterances on a case before a competent court of justice amounts to contempt.
He said, “Babachir Lawal ought to have known that running a jaundiced commentary on a matter before the Supreme Court is the height of irresponsibility. But he is still nursing bitterness and vindictiveness over his failed dream of running on a joint ticket with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Indeed, he is in dire need of professional counselling and deserves our collective pity. It is obvious he may never get over the pain of being tossed into the dustbin of political ignominy by President Bola Tinubu who, against all odds, defeated Mr Peter Obi that exploited our religious and ethnic fault lines in his campaign for the nation’s highest office.
“Thankfully, Nigerians across all ethnic and religious divides, saw through Babachir Lawal’s and Peter Obi’s shenanigans and voted for the best candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Furthermore, it is very uncharitable for Mr. Babachir Lawal to call to question the professional competence of President Tinubu’s appointees, some of whom he cannot hold a candle to their political and professional accomplishments.
“Babachir Lawal is one lightweight politician who thinks himself a heavyweight. He failed spectacularly as a politician in his State of Adamawa where in three election circles he could not deliver his ward and local government in his Hong Local Government.
“Despite his legendary failure as a politician, former President Muhammadu Buhari in deference to diversity appointed him to the high office of SGF where he was unceremoniously sacked on account of very poor performance and dishonourable conduct. A man like Babachir Lawal is in no position to offer an opinion on the competence of President Tinubu’s appointees.”
Continuing, Morka stated that they found it amusing that the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, could emerge from ‘hibernation slinging incoherent aspersions on the person of the President and the exalted office he occupies.’
The APC spokesman also said the party was convinced the loss of Obi must have unsettled him hence his obsession with his alleged jaundiced commentary.
“After a long hiatus licking his wounds from the monumental electoral loss of his candidate in the last presidential election, Lawal unabashedly is out again, peddling gibberish, rather than learn from his political misadventure with equanimity. Clearly, the defeat of his principal, Peter Obi, at the poll has done incalculable damage to Mr. Lawal’s psyche and his capacity for rational thought as evident in his analysis based entirely on the figment of his warped imagination rather than on hard facts and figures.
