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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Elections & Politics

NNPP dismisses Kwankwaso’s claim of external influence in party exit

From The Punch · (5m ago) English Critical tone

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has dismissed claims by its former presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, that his exit from the party was influenced by external factors.
  • NNPP founder Boniface Aniebonam stated that Kwankwaso's departure was due to his own internal struggles to control the party, which he did not register.
  • Aniebonam accused Kwankwaso of a pattern of blaming external influences for his problems and warned other parties about his potential actions.

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has firmly refuted the assertions made by its former presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, regarding the reasons for his departure from the party. Kwankwaso had suggested that external legal issues and influences were the primary drivers behind his exit, drawing parallels to the African Democratic Congress's (ADC) current internal strife.

We left the NNPP due to externally influenced legal problems that made our stay perilous. The ADC has now also been forced into this difficulty.

— Rabiu KwankwasoKwankwaso's statement explaining his exit from the NNPP and drawing parallels with the ADC's situation.

However, Boniface Aniebonam, the founder of the NNPP, has countered these claims, labeling Kwankwaso as his own persistent problem. Aniebonam asserts that Kwankwaso's exit, along with others, stemmed from his "intense fight to take over the NNPP," a party he did not originally establish. This narrative paints Kwankwaso as an individual prone to externalizing blame for self-created difficulties.

The exit of Kwankwaso, Elder Buba Galadima, Dr Ahmed Ajuji and others from the NNPP was not influenced externally but by Kwankwaso’s intense fight to take over the NNPP, a party he did not register.

— Boniface AniebonamNNPP founder's reaction to Kwankwaso's claims.

Aniebonam further elaborated that Kwankwaso's alleged attempt to "hijack" the NNPP and treat it as personal property led to escalating legal battles. He pointed to the Memorandum of Association between the NNPP and the Kwankwasiyya Movement, which facilitated Kwankwaso's presidential bid in 2023 at no cost. Despite the party's success in securing governorship and other elective positions in Kano State through Kwankwasiyya Movement members within the NNPP, Kwankwaso himself finished a distant fourth in the presidential race.

Kwankwaso has always been his own personal problem.

— Boniface AniebonamNNPP founder's assessment of Kwankwaso's character.

The NNPP founder's statement serves as a strong rebuttal, aiming to set the record straight and caution other political entities about Kwankwaso's alleged modus operandi. The party's stance is clear: Kwankwaso's departure was an internal matter driven by his own political ambitions and actions, not external pressures.

It was the same attitude that led to the defection of Gov. Abba Yusuf of Kano State to the All Progressives Congress.

— Boniface AniebonamAniebonam's accusation of Kwankwaso's pattern of behavior.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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