NNPP Faults Court Verdict, Lawmaker, Loyalists Dump Red Cap

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has rejected a judgement of a Federal High Court in Abia State which ordered the takeover of its administration by Dr Boniface Aniebonam.

According to the NNPP, the judgement lacked the basic ingredients of law and therefore, it is null and void.

Meanwhile, a member of the Kwankwasiyya Movement and House of Representatives member representing Rano, Kibiya, and Bunkure local governments constituency, Hon. Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, has directed his supporters to stop wearing the red cap, an identity of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, led by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election.

Rurum, in a statement, after hosting stakeholders meeting on Sunday, November 3, 2024, however called on “His Excellency, the Governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, to stand firm because NNPP is not Kwankwaso’s party, it is our party.”

The statement signed by his media aide, Fatihu Yusuf Abdullahi Bichi, further said “Abba Kabir Yusuf is not enjoying ruling his administration because of the destruction and interference from Kwankwaso.

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“Notwithstanding, I categorically inform my supporters in this constituency not to use red caps henceforth.”

A Federal High Court in Abia State, Uzuakoli Division, presided over by Hon Justice C.U. Okoroafor, had issued a compelling order for the immediate takeover of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT) by one chaired by Dr Boniface Aniebonam.

But in a statement in Abuja, the NNPP national publicity secretary, Ladipo Johnson, noted that the provisions of the constitution relied upon in making the judgment had been amended since 6th April, 2024.

He said those who claimed to be members of the party’s BoT had since been expelled from the party, a decision which he said is upheld by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

He also picked holes with the jurisdiction of the court in Abia just as he said no originating process in the said suit was served on the NNPP at its registered office.

“None of the authentic National Working Committee officers who have their names and addresses registered with INEC as required by the CFRN 1999 (as amended) was served with the said process leading to the judgement.

“The registered office of NNPP with INEC is No.11, Mahatma Gandhi Street, Area 11, Garki, Abuja as required by Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution and the extant provisions of the Electoral Act 2022”, he stated.

The party further contended that a Federal High Court in Abuja Division had earlier ruled and declared the said members of the Board of Trustees as expelled members of the NNPP and thus can no longer be relied upon as authentic BOT members as wrongfully implied in the judgement procured in Abia.

The statement claimed that a Federal High court also previously affirmed the provisions of the constitution of the NNPP that the Board of Trustees is merely an advisory body without executive powers, insisting that the judgment is subsisting and has not been set aside.

Thus, the spokesman of the party concluded that the purported judgement “being bandied around by Aneibonam and his cohorts is a spurious judgement, reached per in curiam, by a court whose jurisdiction could not have been invoked except by fraud. To the extent that it runs counter to an existing judgement of the Federal High Court Abuja division, this Abia judgement goes to no issue whatsoever.”

In a related development, a principal officer of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aliyu Sani Madakin Gini, who represents Dala federal constituency, also disclosed his disassociation from the Kwankwasiyya Movement, which further exposed cracks within the NNPP in Kano State.

However, Hon. Madakin Gini, who represents Dala federal constituency, did not provide details for his reasons.

But media reports have shown that the dissolution of the state’s five emirate councils affected his traditional title as ‘Turaki’ of the defunct Rano Emirate.