​A faction of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has petitioned the National Peace Committee (NPC) to intervene urgently regarding the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) refusal to release its portal access code for uploading candidate particulars.
The internal leadership crisis rocking the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) escalated today as a faction loyal to the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) founder, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, officially submitted a petition to the National Peace Committee in Abuja.
​The petition, signed by factional National Chairman Major Agbo (retd.) and National Secretary Comrade Oginni Olaposi on Tuesday, urges the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led committee to broker a resolution before candidate submission deadlines elapse.
​At the center of the dispute is the electoral umpire’s decision to recognize an opposing faction associated with the Kwankwasiyya movement, led by former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, while withholding the official INEC portal access code from the Agbo-led executive.
​Without this access code, the faction is unable to upload the names and credentials of its primary election winners ahead of the upcoming elections.
​”We have lawfully conducted our primaries and produced authentic candidates. However, INEC’s deliberate withholding of the candidate nomination portal access code threatens to disenfranchise our legitimately elected flagbearers,” the petition stated in part.
​The petition outlines three main demands addressed to the National Peace Committee; Convene an emergency reconciliation session between the NNPP leadership factions and INEC officials.
Secondly, direct INEC to grant equal administrative access or temporarily freeze candidate uploads pending legal determination and ensure that constitutional guidelines regarding internal party democracy and judicial pronouncements are upheld by the commission.
​As of Tuesday morning, neither the Independent National Electoral Commission nor the Secretariat of the National Peace Committee, headed by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, has issued an official statement regarding the petition.
​However, an INEC official who spoke on condition of anonymity stated that the commission only recognizes executive bodies that align with official correspondence on record and existing court orders.
​The NNPP has been embroiled in a protracted legal and administrative battle since mid-2023 following mutual expulsions between the founding BoT members and key figures aligned with the Kwankwasiyya political movement.
The outcome of the National Peace Committee’s intervention is expected to be crucial in deciding which candidates eventually feature on the ballot.
