The founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP,) Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has expressed disappointment over the attempt by former governor of Kano State and 2023 presidential candidate of the party, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso to “hijack the party.”
Narrating his experience with the leader of the Kwankwasiya movement, Aniebonam in a press conference in Lagos on Friday said that the action of Kwankwanso amounted to betrayal of trust.
He noted that he single-handedly registered the NNPP in 2002 and had nurtured the party till the former Kano governor approached him in the buildup to the 2023 general election when he adopted him as the sole presidential candidate of the party.
According to Aniebonam, “Buba Galadima led the delegation, including Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi and Prof. Sam Angai to my country home in Anambra, to plead for us to accept Kwankwaso in NNPP
“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.”
Speaking further, Aniebonam said, “I funded the party for 22 years and Kwankwaso wants to hijack it even when he is not a member of the board of the trustees or the leader of the party.
Dismissing the convention held by Kwankwanso, Aniebonam said that, “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 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.”
