…court lifts suspension, restrains INEC from recognising opposition leaders.
A week after he was suspended from the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, former senator Rabiu Kwankwaso has been expelled from the party indefinitely and with immediate effect.
Abdulsalam Abdulrasaq, the acting national publicity secretary of the NNPP, said Kwankwaso’s expulsion was the decision reached at an emergency meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, last Friday.
Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, was suspended by the party’s leadership on August 29 over allegations of mismanagement of the party’s funds.
Subsequently, the NEC set up a disciplinary committee to investigate the matter within five working days. At the sitting of the committee on August 31, Kwankwaso shunned the panel’s invitation.
Abdulrasaq said Kwankwaso’s expulsion from the party was because he refused to honour the committee’s invitation.
The party’s statement reads partly: “The NEC met in an emergency session on Friday, September 1 and resolved as follows:
“Following the refusal of Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to appear before the disciplinary committee which sat on Thursday, August 31 after being duly invited in writing, he is hereby expelled from NNPP with immediate effect.
“That the erstwhile presidential candidate, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso will be reported to appropriate quarters to answer questions on financial impropriety relating to mismanagement of public funds.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the crisis within the NNPP started when the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party loyal to the former governor of Kano announced the suspension of the NNPP founder, Dr Boniface Aniebonam and the national publicity secretary, Dr Agbo Major on August 24.
Meanwhile, in a later development, Justice Usman Na‘abba of a high court sitting in Kano State set aside Kwankwaso’s suspension from the party and restrained members of the faction that suspended him from acting as national officers of the party until the suit is heard on October 5.
“An order of interim injunction is hereby granted, setting aside the purported suspension of Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as a member of the applicant and restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising the purported suspension pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice,” the presiding judge ruled.
The judge added, “An order of interim injunction is hereby granted restraining the respondents by themselves, their agents, cronies and whosoever acting or act through them from parading themselves, issuing press releases or granting Interviews as national officers, leaders or members of the applicant pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”
The respondents in the suit are Boniface Aniebonam, Gilbert Agbo Major, Tony Christopher Obioha, Oginni Olaposi, Rekia Zanlaga, Mark Usman, Umar Jubril, Adebanju Wasiu, Tajudeen Adebayo, Mamoh Garuba and Abdurasaq Abdulsalam.
Others are Abiola Henry Olarotimi, Babayo Abdullahi Mohammed, Ibrahim Yahaya, Chinonso Adiofu, Sunday Chukwuemeka, Jonathan Chineme Ibeogu and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
- JANDS Travel Business School Sets Bold 2026 Agenda - October 21, 2025
- Court Remands Nnamdi Kanu’s Lawyer, Brother Over Abuja Protest - October 21, 2025
- Tinubu Nominates Bernard Doro as Minister to Replace APC Chairman Yilwatda - October 21, 2025