Kwankwaso destroying NNPP, attempting to hijack party structure, says founder

Boniface Aniebonam, the founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), says Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano, is destroying the party.

In 2023, NNPP’s board of trustees (BoT) suspended Kwankwaso, who was its presidential candidate in the last elections, over allegations of anti-party activities.

However, another faction of the party loyal to the former governor of Kano reversed the suspension.

Kwankwaso was subsequently expelled from the party after he failed to appear before the disciplinary committee set up to probe allegations of anti-party activities against him.

Speaking at a news conference in Lagos on Friday, Aniebonam, a former chairman of the BoT, said Kwankwaso is making attempts to hijack the party’s structure.

“Buba Galadima led the delegation, including Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi and Professor Sam Angai to my country home in Anambra, to plead for us to accept Kwankwaso in the NNPP,” he said.

“After the talks, I placed a call to Kwankwaso and after asking him questions about his intentions for Nigeria, I offered him the platform of NNPP as its sole candidate.

“I believed that Kwankwaso was not aware of the internal crisis in the party until he came out openly on live television, displaying a new logo and flag for the NNPP and mutilating its constitution.

“It is disturbing and if I continue to keep quiet, it will not be in the interest of the soul of the party as the founder and at some point, its board chairman.

“The party’s constitution says the founder is a life member of the board and even when I’m alive, my brother and good friend, Kwankwaso, for whatever reasons, is destroying the party I built from 2002 to 2022 when he joined us to contest the 2023 presidency.

“I funded the party for 22 years and Kwankwaso wants to hijack it even when he is not a member of the board of trustees or the leader of the party.

“The kangaroo convention even when there was a court order stopping it, is null and void because a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday ruled that the NNPP issue is an internal crisis.

“This means that the issues can only be settled using the constitution. However, we are ready to pursue the interpretation of the constitution up to the Supreme Court.”

Aniebonam maintained that Kwankwaso and others were expelled from the party for anti-party activities.

The NNPP founder added that he would grant him a pardon if he purged himself of what he was doing.