By Kolawole Ojebisi
It appears an unresolved internal squabble has festered and fragmented the Kwankwasiya group into factions. The supposed rift in the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has taken a turn for the worse as some factional members are said to have pulled out of the party.
These factional members have also disowned Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as the party’s leader.
This became evident on Monday when the factional National Chairman of the party, Dr. Gilbert Agbo, spoke about the development. Agbo, who led the anti-kwankwasiya campaign at the party secretariat in Minna, Niger State, said Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasiya group were threats to the progress and existence of the party.
According to Agbo, Kwankwaso is no longer a bona fide member of the party following his suspension by the National Working Committee in Lagos
The factional chairman added that with the suspension comes the termination of Kwankwaso’s stake in the party.
Not done with verbal expression of its dissociation from Kwankwaso and by extension the Kwankwasiya group, the factional group said it has severed ties with the symbol of the party, their red caps.
The Kwankwasiya group which comprised people who are loyal to the political ideals and ideologies of Musa Kwankwaso.
Kwankwasiyans are Kwankwaso’s loyal followers who are predominantly Northerners.
Members of the Kwankwasiya group wear iconic red caps as one of their identities.
Meanwhile, Agbo said Governor Kabir Yusuf of Kano State was expected to appear before the party’s disciplinary committee for failing to comply with the party’s principles and supremacy.
But reacting to the development, Mallam Danladi Umar Abdulhamid, leader of the Kwankwasiya Movement in Niger State, said Dr. Agbo’s led national chairman was illegal, saying that the move was meant to serve his personal interests rather than the interest of people.
Abdulhamid said Kwankwaso remained the national leader of the party under Dr. Ahmed Ajuji’s leadership.
This development comes days after Musa Kwankwaso boasted of his party, the NNPP, readiness to take the reins of power from the All Progressives Congress at the Federal level.
Kwankwaso had said the People’s Democratic Party is dead while the APC has lost touch with reality leaving NNPP as the only alternative for Nigerians.
