NNPP Peace Committee exhorts Kwankwaso’s faction to express regret to the party’s founder

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has been tasked with revoking Dr. Boniface Aniebonam’s expulsion from the party.

The committee suggested that the NWC apologise to Aniebonam for the blatant act of impoliteness that was part of the expulsion order.

In August, Mr. Boniface Aniebonam, the party’s founder and chairman of its Board of Trustees (BoT), was ousted along with a few other members by the Rabiu Kwankwaso-led wing of the party.

It charged Mr. Agbo Major, National Publicity Secretary of the BoT, and others with anti-party acts and announced their immediate expulsion.

However, Mr. Azubike Anazor, the party’s national peace committee chairman, said in Lagos on Sunday that Aniebonam deserved respect at all times because he is the party’s founder.

He continued by saying that Aniebonam served as a stage for the different campaigns the party ran in the general elections in 2023.

The chairman further said that Alhaji Abba Ali, the acting national chairman of the NNPP, should arrange a quick meeting between Aniebonam and Kwankwaso.

He also said that the two of them should meet alone for any subsequent follow-up sessions.

He claims that this will inspire confidence and signal the party’s return to democracy, order, and the rule of law.

The NWC and the National Executive Committee should put a hold on any efforts to change or suggest changes to any provisions of the party’s Constitution, according to Anazor.

He emphasised that they should put such proposals on hold that aim to make adjustments to unimportant things like creating a new party logo.

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“Amendments aimed at reducing the authority of any organ of the party as it is currently formed will only lead to animosity and increase suspicion of a founders-led takeover of the party.

“This kind of development cannot lead to the necessary party harmony, togetherness, and oneness that its thronging supporters seek.

“The crisis should be halted for all hostile press conferences, press releases, and television interviews.

“NNPP is working to position itself urgently for enormous victories at all levels during the general elections in 2027 while also giving Nigerians today’s viable opposition.

It can only achieve these objectives if it maintains its unity and grows its membership, rather than through suspensions, expulsions, and other exclusionary practises, according to Anazor.

He continued by saying that the National Peace Committee was able to identify the actual points of contention between the warring parties, which had regrettably been allowed to fester and threatened the party’s corporate existence.

He emphasised that among the concerns were claimed attempts by Kwankwaso, the party’s presidential candidate and national leader, to seize control of the organisation, marginalise its founders, and replace them with the “Kwankwasiyya” faction.

He claimed that the planned revision to the Constitution, which would limit the authority of the Board of Trustees and its chairman as well as the party’s founder, is a component of the strategy.

A counter-allegation, he continued, was that the opposition political party in Kano State had heavily compromised several leaders of the former and disbanded NNPP in order to malign Kwankwaso.

It was said that this was done to lessen Kwankwaso’s power inside the NNPP.

The “expelled” party executives in the states, according to Anazor, claim that they were not given a fair hearing before being suspended and subsequently expelled.

He continued by saying that the committee had learned that Aniebonam’s followers had viewed the party’s reported expulsion of him recently as an insult of exorbitant proportions.

The removal of Aniebonam, according to Anazor, was a gross violation of the NNPP Constitution because the document grants him “Life Membership” in the party’s Board of Trustees.