A Kano State High Court has restrained the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) from suspending its presidential candidate for 2023 general elections, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso
On Tuesday, Justice Usman Na’aana issued an interim injunction prohibiting Boniface Aniebonam, Agbo Major, and 16 other respondents from representing themselves as national officers or party leaders awaiting the hearing and judgment of the motion of notice.
The judge further ruled that “the purported suspension of Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as a member of the applicant (NNPP)” was invalid.
On August 29, 2023, a group within the NNPP led by NNPP chieftains Aniebonam and Major suspended Kwankwaso for six months for socializing with politicians outside the NNPP.
Former Kano State governor Kwankwaso finished fourth in this year’s presidential election.
According to the Aniebonam and Major group, which controls the NNPP Board of Trustees, “material evidence” 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)’s Peter Obi.
Kwankwaso was later expelled from the organisation for “failure to appear before the Disciplinary Committee.”
Kwankwaso was also charged of “financial impropriety relating to the mismanagement of public funds” by the Aniebonam and Major group.
However, the Kano court barred Aniebonam, Major, and 16 other defendants from acting as party officials and set the case for October 5, 2023.
