You Betrayed My Trust, NNPP Founder, Aniebonam Tells Kwankwaso

Dr Boniface Aniebonam, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) founder, has described Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso’s attempt to hijack the party structure as a betrayal of trust.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Aniebonam stated that he provided Kwankwaso with the party’s platform to achieve his political goal of becoming Nigeria’s president on a plate.

Aniebonam stated that he single-handedly registered and nurtured the NNPP from 2002 to 2022 when Kwankwaso and his team approached him to fly the party’s flag in the 2023 general election.

He stated: “Buba Galadima led a delegation to Anambra, including Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi and Prof Sam Angai, to plead with us to accept Kwankwaso into the NNPP.

“After the talks, I called Kwankwaso and, after questioning him about his intentions for Nigeria, I offered him the NNPP platform as the party’s sole candidate.”

“I believed Kwankwaso was unaware of the party’s internal crisis until he appeared openly on live television, displacing the NNPP’s new logo and flag and mutilating its constitution.

“It is upsetting, and if I remain silent any longer, it will not be in the best interests of the party’s soul as its founder and, eventually, board chairman.

“The party’s constitution states that the founder is a life member of the board, and even though I am alive, my brother and good friend Kwankwaso, for whatever reason, is destroying the party I built from 2002 to 2022 when he joined us to run for president in 2023.”

According to him, I founded the party 22 years ago, and Kwankwaso wants to hijack it even though he is not a member of the board of trustees or the party’s leader.

He stated that he founded the NNPP after establishing the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), and that NAGAFF served as the NNPP’s parent body.

Aniebonam recalled Kwankwaso and others being expelled from the party for anti-party activities. Still, as a life member of the board with inherent powers, he would forgive him if he repented his actions.

“The kangaroo convention, despite a court order, is null and void because a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled yesterday that the NNPP issue is an internal crisis that is not justiciable.