State Chairmen’s Forum of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has warned President Bola Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to be cautious in their dealings with former Presidential Candidate of NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
They said the meeting between Kwankwaso and some big wigs in Nigeria’s politics was the former’s ploy to remain relevant after allegedly losing the grip of NNPP’s structure across the country.
In a statement, at the weekend, Ogun NNPP Chairman and Leader of the Forum, Olaposi Oginni, urged Atiku and Tinubu to terminate any dealings with the former governor of Kano.
For the forum, the recent meeting between Kwankwaso and Atiku is distasteful and disgraceful.
Oginni urged the Department of State Services (DSS) to keep an eye on Kwankwaso’s political desperation, which may constitute security risk.
The NNPP chairmen accused Kwankwaso of betraying the founder of the party, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, by breaking the Memorandum of Understanding signed before the 2023 presidential election.
“Dr. Aniebonam gave him the platform without taking a dime to enable him contest the 2023 presidential election. It is saddening that Kwankwaso is shamelessly trying all possible means to hijack the party from the original owner.
“In the same vein, Kwankwaso, without recourse to the states chairmen and the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), unilaterally started and concluded negotiation with Tinubu on the recent presidential election. This anti-party activity was confirmed by Kwankwaso’s spokesperson, Ladipo Johnson, when he appeared on Channels Television last week to respond to various allegations by Oginni,” the statement reads.
The forum used the medium to warn Atiku to be more careful in his dealings with the likes of nomadic politicians of Kwankwaso’s calibre. It added: “Atiku and PDP’s preemptive measures on likely presidential election rerun shall be counter-productive with the likes of Kwankwaso, who can never be trusted.”
“What else can a Kwankwaso, who ensured that Atiku did not emerge as the sole candidate from the North, ready to offer after the colossal damages of Atiku’s and PDP’s chance of winning the presidential election?”