The founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Boniface Aniebonam, says the party’s presidential candidate in 2023, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the Kwankwasaya Movement are trying to hijack the party structure. He described the alleged move as a betrayal of trust.

Speaking at a news conference in Lagos on Friday, Mr Aniebonam said he gave Mr Kwankwaso the platform of the party to achieve his political ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president on a platter of gold.

“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,” said Mr Aniebonam.

Mr Aniebonam said he single handedly registered and nurtured the NNPP from 2002 until 2022, when Mr Kwankwaso and his team approached him to fly the flag of the party in the 2023 presidential election.

He recalled that party chieftain Buba Galadima led a delegation, which included Suleiman Hunkuyi and Sam Angai, to Anambra to appeal to the party to accept Mr Kwankwaso.

“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,” said the party founder.

Mr Aniebonam said he founded the NNPP after he founded the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), and NAGAFF, therefore, is the parent body of the NNPP.

He recalled that Mr Kwankwaso and others were expelled from the party for anti-party activities, but as a life member of the board with inherent powers, he would grant him pardon if he purged himself of what he was doing.

“The Kangaroo Convention, even when there was a court order stopping it, is null and void because a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled on Thursday 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,” he said.

The NNPP founder said that with this singular action, Mr Kwankwaso would no longer enjoy the sole candidature of the NNPP should he even be pardoned.

The party’s new logo was unveiled at its national convention in Abuja earlier this month.

At the event, Mr Kwankwaso congratulated the party for its achievements within a very short time of its formation and lauded stakeholders for the speedy amendment of its constitution, slogan, and logo.

“Even my humble self found it very difficult to identify our logo during the last general election. That was why we thought having a brand new logo for our party was very important,” Mr Kwankwaso had said.

(NAN)