From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
Following the ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja last Thursday that the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) is having an internal crisis, founder of the party, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, says the party will further seek the court’s declaration on the powers of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), as per its constitution.
A former chairman of the BoT, Aniebonam, who was piqued by attempts to hijack the party by supporters of its flagbearer at the 2023 presidential election, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, said he has now come into the “arena” after a long wait for reason and conscience to prevail.
“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,” he told a media conference in Lagos over the weekend.
“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.
“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.”
Displaying the party’s certificate of registration to prove his claim as founder, and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kwankwaso’s group ahead the election, Aniebonam accused Kwankwaso of betrayal of trust.
He disclosed that following a visit to his Anambra home by party chieftains from the group led by Mr. Buba Galadima and included Suleiman Hunkuyi and Sam Angai, he gave Kwankwaso the party platform to achieve his ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president.
Aniebonam, who stated that he single-handedly founded the NNPP decades before the election, accused the former Kano governor and his Kwankwasiyya Movement of trying to hijack the party structure, stating: “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 leader of the party.”
“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.
Wondering how Kwankwaso, who has been expelled from the party for anti-party activities could turn around to expel a life-member of the board with inherent powers, he stated, however, that he would still pardon Kwankwaso if he purged himself.
