The founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr Boniface Aniebonam, has said that the move by Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasiyya Movement to hijack the party structure was a betrayal of trust.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Friday, Dr. Aniebonam said he gave Kwankwaso the NNPP platform to achieve his political ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president on a platter of gold.
“He joined this party for one good reason that he wanted to be president of Nigeria in the last 2023 general election,” he said.
He noted that he singlehandedly registered and nurtured NNPP from 2002 until 2022 when Kwankwaso and his team approached him to fly the flag of the party in the 2023 general election.
According to him, “Buba Galadima led a delegation including Senator 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 the sole candidate of the party.
“It underscores mutilation of the constitution of the party. Before this time, I was having this feeling that his body language seems to be supporting what is going on, but for him to come openly on a live television programme, then I want to believe something is wrong, and if I keep quiet, it is not for the interest of the party, and that is the essence of this gathering,” Aniebonam explained.
According to him, he funded the party for 22 years and Kwankwaso wanted to hijack it even when he is not a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) or the leader of the party.
Dr. Aniebonam explained that he founded NNPP after he founded the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), hence NAGAFF is the parent body of the NNPP.
He recalled that 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 Kwankwaso pardon if he purged himself of what he is doing.
“The kangaroo convention held even when there was a court order stopping it, is null and void because a Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday ruled that NNPP issue is an internal crisis and is therefore injustificable.
“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 added.
Aniebonam said with this singular action of Kwankwaso, he would no longer enjoy the sole candidacy of the NNPP again should he even be pardoned.