The governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday said it will sanction its Lagos State Organising Secretary, Ayodele Adewale over his defense of Bola Tinubu on the two bullion vans driving into his residence hours before the 2019 presidential election.
It would be recalled that Nigerians were irked when they woke up to the images of two bullion vans entering the private residence of Tinubu, an unusual occurrence as bullion vans of that nature are used to transport large sums of money to banks. The Nigerian money laundering act also placed a limit on the amount of physical cash an individual must be with. It remains to be seen if the monies in the bullion van are more than the stipulated cash by the money laundering act.
Adewale had in an interview on Arise TV said that the bullion vans were going to another location but missed their way to Tinubu’s Bourdillon home.
In his words:
“On the bullion van or no bullion van and all of that, I think that matter has been put to rest. There was no money in the bullion van. The bullion vans that even came missed their way to have come there.”
“I was in that house on that very day and it was not on an election day. The bullion vans missed their way to have come there,” he said.
But a senior APC official while speaking with DAILY INDEPENDENT, said Adewale only expressed his personal opinion and not that of the party, adding that the APC chieftain will be sanctioned for granting the interview when he was not authorised to do so as it was not his jurisdiction.
“The Lagos APC never asked him to represent us at any interview. He only went there to embarrass himself and not our party. Everything he said during the interview were his personal opinion. He neither spoke for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu nor for the party”.
“Asiwaju Tinubu had already addressed the issue of the bullion vans and that settles it. Adewale is not his media aide or the spokesman of the party. He just wanted to be in the spotlight and for the wrong reasons”.
“I’m certain disciplinary action will be taken against him because there is a directive from the leadership of the party to avoid granting interviews to Arise TV due to their hostile attitude to our presidential candidate. Adewale willfully ignored that directives and he will pay for it. I think he just made the greatest mistake of his political life” he said.