NNPP Faction Disowns Kwankwaso’s Move to Rejoin APC

The Agbo Major-led faction of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has distanced itself from plans by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, to return to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Daily Times earlier reported that Kwankwaso said he would only consider rejoining the APC if his Kwankwasiyya movement is fully recognised.

The former Kano governor made the remarks at his residence on Friday while receiving Buhari Bakwana, a former political adviser to Abdullahi Ganduje, ex-APC national chairman.

But in a statement on Monday in Lagos, Ogini Olaposi, national secretary of the Agbo Major-led faction, said Kwankwaso’s comments represent a personal agenda of the Kwankwasiyya Movement and not that of the NNPP.

Olaposi said Kwankwaso’s declaration confirmed that he and his movement were no longer part of the NNPP.

“At last we have been vindicated. All negotiations by any party with Kwankwaso should be done in his individual capacity,” Olaposi said.

“Our party will now rest from the Movement’s resistance after they were expelled for anti-party activities.”

He added that while the NNPP has no quarrel with the ruling party, any alliance ahead of the 2027 elections would be a collective decision of its members.
“For now, we are putting our house in order ahead of elections nationwide after the crisis and litigations that Kwankwaso and his followers brought to the NNPP,” Olaposi said.

According to him, the memorandum of understanding between the Kwankwasiyya Movement and the NNPP ended after the 2023 presidential election.

“The crisis began because rather than leave peacefully, they began to plan to hijack the party. We can’t wait to see them in another party,” he added.

Olaposi also claimed Kwankwaso no longer has a political platform, noting that many of his supporters in Kano had already defected to the APC.

“Kwankwaso has no political party. His political value dipped after betraying the NNPP that gave him a free platform for his presidential ambition and when the strategic members of the movement joined the ruling party,” he said.

“Nigerians who negotiate with Kwankwaso and his group should know that it is on his right as a citizen but not as a member of the NNPP. Any negotiation in the name of NNPP is null and void because they remain expelled from our party.”

The factional secretary further criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for delaying the upload of the party’s new executive list after a court-ordered convention produced the Agbo Major-led leadership.