The New Nigeria Peoples Party has said the claim by a former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, that the ruling All Progressives Congress caused its crisis is false and condemnable.

The party spoke on the backdrop of the recent allegations by Mr El-Rufai that the crises in PDP, Labour Party and NNPP were caused and fuelled by the APC.

Recall that Mr El-Rufai alleged that the APC was behind the internal crises rocking the opposition political parties.

In a viral video on X on Tuesday, Mr El-Rufai claimed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was deliberately sponsoring disputes within these parties to weaken their leadership.

In a statement in Lagos on Wednesday, NNPP’s National Chairman, Dr Agbo Major, said that the party was compelled to respond to Mr El-Rufai because his utterances linking the NNPP challenges to the APC were misguided.

He said, “El-Rufai’s assertions were inaccurate information he may have gathered from enemies of NNPP’s internal democratic processes.”

Mr Major pointed out that the crisis in NNPP which had been resolved, was as a result of the inordinate ambition of some members in total disregard for agreements and party rules and regulations.

The party stated, “The genesis of the crisis in NNPP erupted shortly after the 2023 general elections as a result of termination of a Memorandum of Understanding  that struck a temporary union,  between the NNPP, The National Movement (TNM) and the Kwankwasiyya Movement. The genesis and progress of the disagreement has been vigorously put there in the open, using all media platforms since 2023. If the ordinary and uneducated Nigerians are familiar with the facts about the raging crisis, then it’s disappointing for El-Rufai to come to the open media to make such unguarded and unacceptable statement. Nigerians are no longer to be deceived. El-Rufai must know that the choice of who rules Nigeria come 2027 can never be determined by him.”

The national chairman urged El-Rufai to stay away from NNPP issues, as the party was not an opposition to any other, including the APC.

He said the subject matter in Nigeria should be welfare and wellbeing of Nigerians through good governance, hard work, collaboration and observance of the rule of law. 

(NAN)