A chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party has declared that the Governor of Kano State, Abba Yusuf, and not Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, is the national leader of the party.
The National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the NNPP, Alhaji Sani Danmasani, said in a statement on Tuesday that by the party’s constitution, Yusuf is its leader as the only sitting governor produced by the NNPP.
He noted that Kwankwaso’s role as the party’s 2023 presidential candidate ended after the election, following the expiration of the Memorandum of Association between the NNPP and the Kwankwasiya Movement.
“It is not even news that some key members of the Kwankwasiya movement, including Kwankwaso, were later expelled from the NNPP for anti-party activities,” Danmasani said.
Danmasani criticised what he described as persistent media misrepresentation of Kwankwaso as the NNPP leader, warning that such claims had encouraged invalid negotiations for political alliances under the party’s name.
“We reiterate that negotiations for 2027 alliances with Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasiya movement are okay but will be invalid if they are done purportedly on the NNPP platform,” he said, adding that “only Dr Boniface Aniebonam, who is the founder and life member of the Board of Trustees, and the National Executive Committee led by Dr Agbo Gilbert can negotiate for the NNPP.”
He stressed that Kwankwaso and his group “were expelled and remain expelled,” urging them to either join another party or form a new one, while also calling on the media to refer to Kwankwaso strictly as a former senator, former governor of Kano State and the NNPP’s 2023 presidential candidate, “but not its leader.”