Group’suspends’ Kwankwaso from the NNPP, aggravating the party’s crisis
The turmoil shaking the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) appears to have no end in sight, as a faction within the party removed the party’s flag bearer for the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Tuesday.
The faction lead by NNPP chieftains Boniface Aniebonam and Agbo Major suspended Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor who finished fourth in last year’s presidential race.
At a special general assembly convened at the Rockview Hotels in the Apapa region of Lagos State, the group led by Aniebonam and Major suspended Kwankwaso.
According to the group, “material evidence” presented in public affirmed Kwankwaso’s involvement in “anti-party activities in various meetings” and political discussions with President Bola Tinubu, then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi.
According to the organisation, Kwankwaso’s political mingling earned him a six-month ban pending the outcome of a disciplinary committee probe.
The party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was also suspended by the Aniebonam and Major faction, which controls the NNPP Board of Trustees.
Aniebonam resigned as BoT Chairman in a communiqué issued at the end of the party’s conference in Lagos, with Tope Aluko chosen as his replacement and Babayo Abdulahi as the new BoT Secretary.
The Aniebonam group proclaimed the NWC unfit, and the NWC can no longer execute its duty and is no longer relevant in the eyes of the law owing to attrition and inability of the members to follow the constitution and due procedure in replacing the empty posts.”
The Lagos meeting “strongly condemns Buba Galadima’s parade of himself as BoT Secretary.” This behaviour is contrary to the makeup of the BOT members as specified in our constitution.”
“The appointment of new national officers headed by Dr. Agbo Major as acting national chairman and Comrade Ogini Olaposi as acting national secretary, along with about 18 others, was affirmed by the BoT,” according to the bulletin.
However, the Kwankwaso faction inside the party called a “NEC meeting” in Abuja on Tuesday and ousted Aniebonam and Major.
The NEC also proposed various proposals concerning the party’s logo, constitution revision, confirmation of state caretaker committees, and suspension of two sections of the NNPP 2022 constitution.
The Abuja group called the Lagos group’s resolution “null and void and without effect.”
The conference in Abuja was attended by Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, as well as other party veterans such as Kawu Ismaila and Buba Galadima.