The New Nigeria Peoples Party has strongly rejected allegations made by Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, interim National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, that the ruling All Progressives Congress is sponsoring attacks against opposition parties in the coalition formed to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections.
The ADC had on Monday accused the Tinubu administration of targeting its leaders in the North East and North West regions to weaken the opposition alliance. Abdullahi claimed the coalition would not tolerate attempts to establish a one-party system in Nigeria.
The coalition formally adopted the ADC as its platform for the 2027 elections on July 2.
In a statement issued Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ogini Olaposi, the NNPP cautioned politicians against inflammatory statements that could incite public unrest. The party demanded that Abdullahi retract his “unfounded allegations” and exclude the NNPP from his claims.
“Nigeria is facing so much challenges that people may likely misinterpret statements that tend to be unfriendly to the greater numbers,” the NNPP stated. “Ordinarily, the NNPP would not have bothered to respond to the ADC allegations against the ruling party, if Abdullahi had not mentioned the NNPP in one of his interviews and live appearances in national television stations.”
The party expressed surprise at being dragged into the controversy, emphasizing that Abdullahi is not an NNPP member and therefore lacks authority to speak for the party.
“Abdullahi should exclude NNPP from the unfounded assertion that APC is sponsoring attacks on opposition parties. It is surprising to members of NNPP how he came about this belief when he is not a member of our great party.”
Addressing its internal leadership crisis, the NNPP clarified that the dispute stemmed from Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and his followers’ attempts to “hijack” the party, not from APC interference. “Kwankwaso joining the coalition or not is not tantamount to NNPP joining the ADC or coalition. We are not part of any coalition or ADC, the coalition cannot speak for us,” the party asserted.
The NNPP rejected the conventional notion of opposition politics, positioning itself instead as a “responsible partner” to all INEC-registered parties. “The NNPP is rather responsible partners to all the sister political parties duly registered in Nigeria by the regulatory body, INEC. Opposition in Nigeria means that nothing is good about a seating government, this is very sad and regrettable.”
The statement criticized politicians for bypassing internal dispute resolution mechanisms in favor of litigation. “The politicians gave themselves a constitution, the same politicians will rather go to court for interpretation of a constitution they wrote for themselves.”
Concluding with a firm stance on its political independence, the NNPP warned: “For the proponents of the coalition, please take note that on no account should anyone be deceived with the platform of NNPP. We are registered as a national political party to contest elections. We are not registered to gang up against any of our sister political parties.”
