Founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, has dismissed reports that Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, resigned from the party, insisting that the governor only withdrew from the Kwankwasiya Movement led by Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Aniebonam made the clarification in a statement on Saturday, reacting to widespread media reports suggesting that Yusuf had dumped the NNPP alongside several elected officials in Kano State.
According to the NNPP founder, the governor’s resignation letter was not addressed to the authentic National Working Committee (NWC) of the party led by Dr. Major Agbo, nor to any recognised state, local government or ward executive of the NNPP.
“The letter was addressed to a member of the Kwankwasiya Movement in Diso-Chiranchi Ward, Gwale Local Government Area. The NNPP does not recognise any Kwankwasiya ward chairman as an official of the party,” Aniebonam stated.
He stressed that neither he, as founder and Chairman of the NNPP Board of Trustees, nor the party’s legitimate leadership, had been formally notified of Yusuf’s resignation from the NNPP.
Media reports had claimed that the governor’s exit from the party was part of a broader political realignment that also involved 21 members of the Kano State House of Assembly, eight members of the House of Representatives and 44 local government chairmen across the state. The purported mass defection was disclosed on Friday in a statement issued by the governor’s spokesperson, Sunusi Tofa.
In the letter circulated in the media, Yusuf reportedly informed the Chairman of the Diso-Chiranchi Ward of his decision to resign his NNPP membership with effect from January 23, 2026.
However, Aniebonam maintained that the NNPP had earlier lifted the governor’s suspension and directed him to assume leadership responsibilities as the highest elected officer of the party in Kano State.
He further cited judgments of the Abia State High Court and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, which, according to him, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise and hand over the administration of the NNPP to the Aniebonam-led Board of Trustees.
“The FCT High Court also issued an enrolment order restraining INEC from dealing with the Kwankwasiya Movement. NNPP is a registered political party, while Kwankwasiya is merely a pressure group whose memorandum of association with the party has been terminated,” he said.
Aniebonam added that the former NWC led by Dr. Ahmed Ajuji was expelled for anti-party activities after the 2023 presidential election, stressing that all NNPP candidates in Kano were elected on the party’s platform and logo of the basket of fruits, not the Kwankwasiya insignia.
He described INEC’s delay in updating its records to reflect the Agbo Major–Oginni Olaposi-led NWC as an administrative lapse, noting that ongoing judicial proceedings at the FCT High Court were aimed at compelling the electoral body to comply with existing court judgments.
While acknowledging the governor’s right to make personal political decisions, Aniebonam said the NNPP harboured no grievance against Yusuf, blaming the current tension in Kano on what he described as the “high-handedness” of Senator Kwankwaso.
He urged party members in Kano State and across the country to remain calm and committed, expressing confidence that the NNPP would emerge stronger ahead of the 2027 general elections.