The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, upbraided a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir Lawal, for claiming that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won the 2023 presidential election.
Lawal had in an earlier statement he issued insisted that Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came second, while President Bola Tinubu of the APC came a distant third in the poll.
According to him, regardless of whatever INEC or Appeal Court said or did, President Tinubu did not win the 2023 presidential election.
But, firing back at the former SGF, the governing APC said Lawal was a burden unto himself, adding that he was in dire need of counselling.
In a statement issued on Tuesday night by the APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, the party noted that the defeat of Lawal’s preferred candidate, Peter Obi, at the 2023 poll has caused incalculable damage to his psyche and his capacity to think rationally.
Morka stated: “Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, emerged from his hibernation slinging incoherent aspersions on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the exalted office he occupies.
“After a long hiatus leaking his wounds from the monumental electoral loss of his candidate in the last presidential election, Mr. 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. A clear sign of his disconnect from reality was his reference to election held in May 2023, rather than February.”
The APC challenged the former SGF to provide a detailed breakdown of what he termed “aggregated facts sourced from independent sources,” which he relied on to claim Obi won the presidential election or keep quiet forever.
It stated: “That he did not provide these facts to help Obi prove his case before the Presidential Elections Petitions Court is a massive disservice if not betrayal of his political principal.
“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, Babachir Lawal is in dire need of professional counseling 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.”
The party further described Lawal as one lightweight politician who is parading himself as a heavyweight, adding that 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,” it added.
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