Lagos, Nigeria — Founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, has again accused Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Elder Buba Galadima of “betrayal of trust” amid a fresh leadership tussle in the party.
In a statement issued in Lagos, Aniebonam condemned a letter sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by a Kwankwaso-aligned group, notifying the commission of plans to hold fresh ward, local government and state congresses from 24 November, culminating in a national convention in January 2026. The letter, dated 31 October and signed by Dr Ahmed Ajuji and Mr Dipo Olayoku, seeks to produce a new set of NNPP officials.
Aniebonam described the move as “people struggling over what does not belong to them,” insisting Kwankwaso and Galadima have no moral or legal claim to the party’s structure. He alleged that Kwankwaso only approached NNPP in late 2022 after sending a delegation including Galadima, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi and Prof. Sam Angwe to his country home in Umuawulu, Anambra State, to plead for the 2023 presidential ticket.
According to him, the party granted Kwankwaso the ticket “at no cost” and allowed members of the Kwankwasiyya movement to run for other offices under NNPP, based on a “simple, liberal and brotherly” Memorandum of Understanding that expired after the 2023 general elections. He now alleges that after the polls, Kwankwaso “planned a betrayal of trust,” secretly altering the party’s logo, colours and constitution “to his advantage” and later claiming to have expelled the very founder of the party.
“What an impunity, arrogance, disrespectfulness and betrayal of trust,” Aniebonam said, stressing that the NNPP constitution grants the founder life membership of the Board of Trustees and shields him from such disciplinary actions. He lamented that someone who had served as defence minister, governor and senator, and now mentors Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf, should “do better.”
The NNPP has been locked in a bitter leadership feud since 2023, with rival factions citing conflicting court rulings and orders. An Abia State High Court judgment in 2024 ordered INEC to recognise a BoT-led structure aligned with Aniebonam, while subsequent cases in Abuja have deepened the rift over who controls the party’s organs and convention processes.
Aniebonam said the struggle to “hijack” NNPP has triggered multiple lawsuits and “massive defections” to other parties but insisted the party would “come out stronger in 2027 as the party to watch,” despite what he called the “antics” of Kwankwaso and his allies.
Kwankwaso, for his part, remains a major national figure and has been linked with possible alliances ahead of the 2027 elections, while his camp maintains it is acting to “rebuild” NNPP nationally. He has previously rejected accusations of bad faith, framing the dispute as an internal power struggle.
