Senior Advocate of Nigeria and National Legal Adviser of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Magaji Mato, has dismissed claims of factionalisation within the party, describing them as propaganda driven by political motives and private interests.
Addressing the controversy during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, Mato said the narrative of divisions within the NNPP lacks both legal and factual basis. According to him, a political party cannot be said to be factionalised simply because individuals make such claims in public.
Mato stressed that based on official records, the NNPP remains a single, unified party with one recognised leadership. He pointed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the definitive authority on party leadership, noting that the electoral body recognises Alhaji Ahmed Ajuji as the party’s national chairman.
He said, “There cannot be factionalisation just by mere saying of it. NNPP has been a very single party, because for you to establish a faction, you must not only say it in fact, you must also say it legally. As far as the record is concerned, there is only one NNPP, and there is a single leadership of NNPP.
“When you go to the website of INEC, you will not be left in doubt that the current and recognisable national chairman of NNPP is Alhaji Ahmed Ajuji. So when you leave that realm and then go to the legal perspective, you also find there is no pronunciation of any court of law in Nigeria, whether with or without jurisdiction, that two factions exist in NNPP. So what we are facing now is just mere propaganda.”
He acknowledged that some disgruntled members have approached the courts but said none of their cases succeeded in destabilising the party.
Mato accused those pushing the factionalisation narrative of deliberately seeking to mislead the public and the media to create the impression of crisis within the party.
He said, “People go around to say, ‘I am the leader in this, I’m the leader in that.’ And then the public and the media dwell on the propaganda to establish the issue of faction. There is no faction in both facts and in law in NNPP as far as the record is concerned. We can prove it anywhere.
“We agree that some disgruntled elements have gone to courts, but there is no court that they went to and succeeded in tearing the party apart. All the judgments so far that have been given, have been given against them. So we understand they are being used for political motives to promote some private agenda, to create tension where there is none, to create a platform for defection where there is none. But I tell you sincerely from my table as a national legal advisor of NNPP that there is no faction anywhere in NNPP. We can defend it anywhere.”
Melissa Enoch
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