From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
Founder of the New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has declared that with last week’s judgement of the Abia State High Court, the party is now fully restored and safe in the hands of the legitimate Board of Trustees (BoT).
The party has been in conflict since after the 2023 election, as its former presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, alongside some members, including elder Buba Galadima, had allegedly attempted hijacking its ownership and leadership.
However, Aniebonan, who addressed the media on Tuesday in Lagos following the judgement compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hand over the NNPP management to its BoT, said “it is important to note that the party is now safe in the hands of its BoT.
He expressed concern that one Ladipo Johnson, working with Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasiyya and Galadima has been “jumping from one media house to the other misleading Nigerians on the issue since this groundbreaking judgement was delivered last week.”
According to Aniebonam, characters like Kwankwaso, Galadima and Johnson, who have “long been expelled from the party before the judgement, cannot speak for NNPP but for their kwankwassiya group, which was part of us before the 2023 election but have long exited after the election.
“We were curious about a week ago when the news of Senator Kwankwaso and Galadima withdrawing their case in Kano State High Court against Dr. Boniface Aniebonam and other legitimate members of the party broke out.
“This was a case targeted at rewarding me with embarrassment despite the level of benevolence extended to them in my country home in Umuawulu in 2022, when they came to ask for my assistance to use the party platform for the 2023 general election.”
Nevertheless, he advised Kwankwaso and his group to note that a federal high court and a state high court are of coordinate jurisdiction, adding that “no matter how fraudulent a judgement might be, one needed to vacate such order/judgement directly or through an appellate court.”
He further noted that “except this compelling order is vacated at the appeal court or supreme court, Senator Kwankwaso, Buba Galadima and the entire officers of the party have been dissolved and sacked.”
More so, “a stay-of-execution order does not apply to declaratory judgements of a high court, and a declaratory judgement may not need service, as the subject matter is INEC’s inability to exercise its authority in administration and management of statutory functions as it relates to regulation of political parties and their activities.
“The compelling order is for INEC to exercise its authority of regulation and control of political parties in Nigeria under the law, therefore, Kwankwaso, Galadima and the entire defunct and puppet NWC members of the Kwankwassiya group masquerading as NNPP are inconsequential under the present circumstances and the law.”
