The Founder of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Okechukwu Aniebonam has called on the members of the party in Kano State to remain calm as the tribunal judgement will be appealed against at the Supreme Court.
Speaking exclusively with People’s Forum Online yesterday evening, Dr. Aniebonam stated that what the party got yesterday was judgement and not justice, so they will appeal against it.
In his words: “We are going to appeal against the tribunal judgement. What we got was judgement and not justice. I appeal to our members in Kano State to keep calm.”
The founder kicked against insinuations that the crisis engulfing the party might have played a role in the judgement, insisting that there is no correlation between the two.
According to him, the crisis rocking the party is no issue as the main actors have not said anything.
Aniebonam described what is happening in the party as an internal problem which is normal, adding that some people who want to be relevant are fuelling it.
“There is no issue because the main actors have not said anything. Some people only want to be relevant. The constitution of the party guarantees freedom of speech.
“Some said they expelled this, others said they expelled that. I’m looking at them, Kwankwanso is looking at them. There is freedom of speech. You can say what you like. But where your liberty stops is where another man’s begins.
“The good thing is that I have not spoken, Kwankwaso have not spoken, meaning that there is no issue,” he stressed.
He reiterated that he is the founder of the party and that there may be co-founders but cannot be the same as the founder.
He said it’s absolutely abnormal to expel the founder of a party who is a life member.
“Is it normal for a human being created by Almighty God to say that you expel the founder of the party who is a life member of the party? Is it normal? Don’t you think something is wrong? he asked.
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano had yesterday declared Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the Kano governorship election.
The tribunal gave the final judgement after cancelling some votes recorded by the NNPP candidate and Kano Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Oluyemi Akintan Osadabey said the margin of votes scored by the NNPP was not enough to give Governor Yusuf victory.
It said some of the votes credited to Yusuf were invalid.
APC’s Gawuna won all the three grounds presented before the tribunal which include over voting, invalid votes and not being a member of the party as at the time of the NNPP primary election.
The Tribunal ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to retrieve the Certificate of Return issued to Yusuf and give same to Gawuna as the original winner of the election.
She declared that the position of the law states that one must be a bonafide member of a political party before he was allowed to contest an elections, while in the case of Abba Kabir Yusuf he wasn’t a member of NNPP 30 stipulated dates before the conduct of the general elections.
After the deduction of votes, Gawuna was declared winner with 897,000 votes, while Abba got 850,000 votes.
