The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has suspended its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for alleged anti-party activities.
This comes days after he met President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) at the presidential villa.
The BoT also suspended the national working committee (NWC) of the NNPP and appointed new national officers headed by Agbo Major as acting national chairman and Ogini Olaposi as acting national secretary with 18 others.
Secretary of the BoT, Babayo Muhammed Abdulahi, while addressing the press at the end of the meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, said the suspension is for six months.
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.
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.
He 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.
Abdulahi 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.”