The New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has explained why its former National Chairman, Prof Rufa’i Alkali, and other party members defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Abdulsalam Abdulrasaq, on Wednesday, Alkali, Prof Bem Angwe, Senator Othman Hunkuyi, and others left the party “due to high-handedness and insatiable desire to take over a platform benevolently donated by Dr Boniface Aniebonam and its mother organisation – NAGAFF for use in the 2023 general election”.
The APC announced on its official X handle on Wednesday that its national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, had received 26 NNPP chieftains, including Alkali and three governorship candidates, into the party in Abuja.
In the statement, Abdulrasaq recalled that the role of Angwe and Hunkuyi as signatories to the MOU between Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the NNPP, which led to the fusion of the Kwankwassiyya and TNM groups, had previously been revealed to the press.
The statement also stated that Alkali was elected national chairman at the union’s founding convention on March 30, 2022, but left the party and his position on March 30, 2023, due to alleged “high-handedness and irreconcilable differences with Kwankwaso on issues of undemocratic tendencies and lately the desire to take over fraudulently a platform that he was benevolently given by a gentle old man to actualise his ambition of running for the presidency of Nigeria”.
He explained that Angwe, a signatory to the MOU who withdrew his signature long before the document itself expired after the 2023 election, had allegedly complained about attempts to sell off his governorship ticket in Benue State, which he had worked so hard to win, to the highest bidder.
According to the statement, he later developed cold feet, which hampered his performance in the 2023 election despite the overwhelming support he receives from the good people of Benue State.
According to the statement, Hunkuyi, a signatory to the MOU who also withdrew long ago, has been at odds with Kwankwaso even while serving as National Organising Secretary within the party’s administrative structure.
According to the statement, Hunkuyi complained about high-handedness, imposition, refusal to listen to others, and other issues while serving the party.
“The irreconcilable differences extended to the period after emerging as the governorship candidate of NNPP in Kaduna State.
“While the campaign lasted, there was no noticeable contact or synergy with the governorship candidate due to the rift which was very obvious,” the statement said.
Hunkuyi communicated his withdrawal to the party’s founder, Aniebonam, to whom he also apologized for all the embarrassment they faced despite his benevolence during the period they joined the party.
The defection of the 26 NNPP chieftains, according to Abdulrasaq, hit the party like a thunderstorm at a time when the new leadership of Dr Agbo Major has formed a special committee to interact with them.
