The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has suspended Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the NNPP in the February 2023 presidential election over alleged anti-party activities.
The NNPP BoT also suspended members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
Dr Agbo Major and Mr Ogini Olaposi were appointed as acting National Chairman and Acting National Secretary, respectively.
According to the BoT, Senator Kwankwaso’s suspension is expected to last for six months.
The suspensions were put to a voice vote by members of the party at its special general assembly, held at the Rockview Hotels in Apapa.
The NWC of the party, on August 24, announced the suspension of the founder of the party, Boniface Aniebonam, and the national publicity secretary, Major.
Addressing reporters at the end of the meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, BoT secretary, Babayo Abdulahi, accused Kwankwaso of hobnobbing with President Bola Tinubu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, without the board’s authorisation.
Abdullahi announced that Kwankwaso had been stripped of the NNPP national leader status by the board.
The secretary of the BoT said the purported suspension of the NNPP founder was a flagrant gross violation of the party’s constitution.
He pointed out that Aniebonam had resigned as the BoT chairman and a new BoT Chairman, Tope Aluko, was elected with Abdulahi as new BoT Secretary, while Tony Obioha was elected as BoT spokesperson.
Abdulahi said the pre-election Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Kwankwasia Movement, the National Movement (TNM) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) had been rendered void by the actions of the NWC.
Abdullahi said: “The purported suspension of the founder is a flagrant gross violation of the NNPP constitution such that it is tantamount to recklessness and irresponsibility on the part of the incompetent NWC.
“The BoT decided that material evidence in the public sector affirmed that Kwankwaso was involved in anti-party activities in various meetings, suggest political discussions with the President, Atiku and Obi without authorisation from the board.
“This has earned him six months suspension pending the outcome of investigation by the Disciplinary Committee.
“The BOT insisted that the avoidable violation of MoU between NNPP on the one part and Kwankwasia, TNM and NAGAFF on the other has no other choice than to withdraw from the partnership.
“It is therefore to state clearly that the MOU have been rendered void.”
Also speaking, the acting chairman said his team would hit the ground running by healing the wounds created by the suspended NWC members.
