Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday grilled the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan over her comment that she would support former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in 2019.

She arrived the party headquarters at 1:59pm, and was questioned for more than two hours.

National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Bolaji Abdullahi while briefing journalists on the outcome of the meeting said Alhassan’s statement was an act of indiscretion.

He said the National Working Committee (NWC) asked the minister to explain what really transpired concerning the controversial comment.

“She is a party leader in her own right. What she said was not what she should have said at the time. She ought to have exercised greater judgement than she did and she acknowledged that. That maybe the timing was wrong and she apologized.

“She apologized if she had put the party in any difficult position,” he said.

Abdullahi maintained that, “She ought to have exercised greater sense of discretion and better judgment knowing that making that kind of statement would definitely create some other situations for the party, if not for the government.”

Asked whether the APC asked the embattled minister to resign, Abdullahi said, “No that did not come up. What we just said was that we understand the context in which she said what she said. That it was an act of indiscretion for someone occupying the position she is occupying in the party to make that kind of statement.

“If this was 2018 and the people have filed their applications to say they are contesting and she now comes out and says she is supporting this person, how can that be an issue?

“But we are still in 2017. We are still far away. Atiku Abubakar has not said he is contesting. He has not collected any form. He has not announced to anybody that he is contesting. So, that is what we mean by the timing. It is not that she had no right to say what she said.”

Azeez