THE crisis gripping the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) appears to have no end in sight, as a group inside the party today removed the NNPP flag candidate for the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
The faction lead by NNPP chieftains Boniface Aniebonam and Agbo Major suspended Kwankwaso, a former Kano State governor who finished fourth in this year’s presidential race.
The Aniebonam and Major group suspended Kwankwaso at a special general assembly held at the Rockview Hotels in the Apapa region of Lagos State.
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 group, Kwankwaso’s political scheming earned him a six-month ban pending the conclusion of an investigation by a disciplinary commission.
The Aniebonam and Major group, which controls the NNPP Board of Trustees, has also suspended the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Aniebonam resigned as BoT Chairman in a statement issued at the end of the party’s gathering in Lagos, with Tope Aluko elected as his replacement and Babayo Abdulahi as new BoT Secretary.
The Aniebonam group declared the NWC as “incompetent and due to attrition and failure of the members to follow the constitution and due process in filling of the vacant positions, the NWC can no longer perform its role and is no longer relevant in the eyes of the law”.
The group that met in Lagos “take strong exception to Buba Galadima’s parading of himself as BoT Secretary. This conduct is in violation of the composition of the members of the BOT in accordance with our constitution”.
The communique partly read, “The appointment of new national officers headed by Dr. Agbo Major as acting National Chairman and Comrade Ogini Olaposi as acting National Secretary with about 18 others were affirmed by the BoT
However, the Kwankwaso faction inside the party called a “NEC meeting” in Abuja and ousted Aniebonam and Major.
The NEC also proposed various proposals concerning the party’s logo, constitution revision, ratification of state caretaker committees, and suspension of two articles 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.
