The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has denied claims that it is part of a coalition group aligned with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), refuting remarks made by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during a live television interview.
In a statement issued on Thursday, NNPP National Secretary Ogini Olaposi clarified that the party has no affiliation with the ADC coalition and has no plans to merge with or join the platform. “We are so surprised that Abubakar, a frontline presidential aspirant of the ADC, could make such an assertion, that NNPP is now in ADC,” Olaposi said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Abubakar had listed the NNPP among parties within the ADC’s coalition during an interview with Arise Television’s Charles Aniagolu. Olaposi dismissed the claim, stating that while Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Dr. Ahmed Ajuji, Elder Buba Galadima, and the Kwankwasiya Movement are associated with the coalition, their involvement does not extend to the NNPP as a political party.
Olaposi explained that the NNPP’s Memorandum of Association with the Kwankwasiya Movement expired following the 2023 general elections, and Kwankwaso and other key figures were expelled from the party. “We are not after anyone or group but merely a political party seeking to contest elections in Nigeria like other political parties,” he said. “We have nothing against the ADC, but we also do not want to be part of it.”
He further noted that while some members of the Kwankwasiya Movement followed Kwankwaso to the ADC, they represented a minority. “It is our hope that ADC was not deceived by the rented crowd seen in Kano when the former Kano State governor joined them,” Olaposi added, suggesting that the majority of the Kwankwasiya Movement had aligned with the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The NNPP’s statement underscores the ongoing realignments within Nigeria’s political landscape as parties and movements position themselves ahead of future elections.
