NATIONAL Leader of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has issued a stern warning to party defectors, saying those who abandoned the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will soon face the political consequences of their actions.
News Point Nigeria reports that Kwankwaso, who was the NNPP presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, gave the warning while receiving a delegation of supporters loyal to Senator Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila at his Miller Road residence in Kano.
Without mentioning names directly, Kwankwaso stated that politicians who rode to power on the popularity of the Kwankwasiyya Movement only to defect afterwards had betrayed the trust of the masses who voted for them.
“Kwankwasiyya is a movement for people who reason. It is not a money-making venture,” he said.
“Those voted for by the poor have dumped our party after being bribed. Let me assure you, this will not persist. Time of judgement is coming. Anyone who betrays the trust of the people will pay the price.”
Earlier, leader of the delegation, Sunusi Hukuma, reaffirmed his group’s loyalty to Kwankwaso despite Senator Sumaila’s shock return to the APC.
“We supported him because he joined Kwankwasiyya. Now that he has left, we have come to renew our loyalty to our leader,” Hukuma declared.
He vowed that the group would work against Sumaila’s future political ambition and support whichever candidate Kwankwaso endorses for Kano South in 2027.
To demonstrate their loyalty, the supporters removed their old caps and donned the iconic red Kwankwasiyya caps, signaling a complete break with the defected lawmaker.
Kwankwaso commended the supporters for resisting lobbying and inducements aimed at pushing them to follow the senator to the APC.
He said the movement had enlightened the masses to reject financial inducements during elections, insisting that political integrity must return to Nigeria’s democratic space.
“The poor now understand they don’t need money or gifts to vote for the right person,” he stressed.
Senator Sumaila left the APC for NNPP in 2022, winning the Kano South senatorial seat during the 2023 elections.
Recently, he returned to the APC and pledged allegiance to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political structure in Kano.