By Gideon Njoku
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has scolded Senate President, Godswill Akpabio for making an inappropriate reference while mocking the Party, to the 2006 ADC Aircraft crash in Abuja, which killed 96 people including the then incumbent Sultan of Sokoto.
The fatal crash happened on October 29, 2006 minutes after the aircraft took off from Abuja Airport en route Sokoto Airport. The Sultan was on his way back to Sokoto after attending an official event in Abuja organised by the Federal Government.
At the Senate Plenary, Akpabio, known for his penchant for cracking, atimes, provocative or dry jokes, took a dig at the African Democratic Congress, ADC, thus, laughing: ” I am in total sympathy with what’s going on. The PDP is on the ground. Their umbrella is torn. The Labour Party is scattered. ADC crashed even before it took off.”
But in a swift response, wreaking of outrage, the ADC Spokesperson, Bola Abdullahi, a former Minister of Youth and Sports, accused Akpabio, in a post on X, of making a joke of a National tragedy.
He wrote: “On October 29, 2006, ADC Airlines Flight 053 crashed in Abuja; killing 96 people, including the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Muhammadu Maccido, who had come to the Capital to attend an education summit organised by the Federal Government.
“Now, it is the same National tragedy that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has turned into a joke and material for mockery. Who are these people?”
A few days ago, while disclosing that he has been under intense pressure to join the ADC, Pastor Tunde Bakare, an APC Presidential aspirant in 2023, and late President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 Presidential race under the CPC, had said: I don’t know of any ADC. The only ADC I know is the plane that crashed.”
Not a few people termed Bakare’s remarks insensitive.
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