Defection: You’ve been expelled – NNPP fires back at Kwankwaso

The New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has faulted Rabiu Kwankwaso for describing members of the Kwankwassiya Movement who defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, as betrayers, insisting that Kwankwaso is the betrayer.

Recall that Kwankwaso, the National Leader of the  Kwankwasiyya Movement, slammed some key members of the NNPP in Kano State, who recently defected to the APC, describing their actions as a betrayal of trust.

Kwankwaso stated this at his Miller Road residence in Kano on Friday evening, when some members of the Kwankwasiya Movement from Takai Local Government Area visited him on invitation.

Senator Abdulrahman Kawu, who represents Kano South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, recently defected to the APC along with some federal lawmakers from Kano State.

In a statement on Monday in Lagos, NNPP National Chairman, Dr Agbo Major said that Kwankwaso cannot speak for the party, having been expelled long ago.

“Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso have been expelled from NNPP together with his followers, led by Dr Ahmed Ajuji,” he said.

According to Major, the Kwankwasiya Movement is not a political party but a group admitted into the NNPP before the 2023 presidential elections, when their leader became the flagbearer of the party.

Major stated that the NNPP found it funny that Kwankwaso would be calling out some members of his group who joined the APC as betrayers of the party.

“The NNPP has long severed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasia movement after the presidential elections in 2023, hence, members of the movement as Nigerian citizens are legally free to join any political party of their choice.

“The same Kwankwaso who betrayed the trust reposed in him by the NNPP when he tried to hijack the party,  is the one calling others, betrayers.

“Nigerians have the constitutional right to join and belong to any political party.

“Therefore, Kwankwaso, who has long lost control of his Kwankwasiya movement, cannot stop his members from belonging to the APC and or any other political party in Nigeria.

“Kwankwaso lost all respect from his followers when he tried to bite the fingers that gave him the presidential ticket on trust without any financial obligations.

“Kwankwaso has long been expelled from the NNPP and should either register his own party or look for another political platform to hijack.

“His members defecting to the APC simply shows that he has also lost control of the movement,  just like he lost his planned hijack of the NNPP,  registered in 2002  before his entrance in 2023,” he said.