Kano high court grants Kwankwaso reprieve setting aside his suspension from NNPP

FORMER Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso has been given a legal reprieve in his ongoing battle with the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) after the Kano State High Court voided his recent suspension.

Over recent weeks, Senator Kwankwaso has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with other leaders of the party for whom he stood as their presidential candidate in the last election. In August, Senator Kwankwaso was suspended for six months by the board of directors for alleged anti-party activities.

Then, this week, things took a turn for the worse when  he was expelled for refusing to appear before the party's disciplinary committee. In what has been a turbulent two months, the NNPP’s crisis began on August 24, when the party’s leadership loyal to Senator Kwankwaso announced the suspension of the party’s founder, Dr Boniface Aniebonam and the national publicity secretary, Dr Agbo Major.

On Tuesday Senator Kwankwaso got some respite after Justice Usman Mallam Na’abba of the Kano State High Court, set aside the suspension. While restraining Dr Boniface Aniebonam and Dr Boniface Aniebonam from parading themselves as national officers or leaders of the party pending the hearing and determination of the motion of notice, he also restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising the purported suspension.

The Aniebonam and Major group, which controls the NNPP board of trustees, said material evidence affirmed that Senator Kwankwaso was involved in anti-party activities in various meetings and political discussions with President Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress, his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart Atiku Abubakar and candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi. They also accused Senator Kwankwaso of financial impropriety relating to the mismanagement of public funds.

However, the Kano court restrained Masers Aniebonam, Agbo, and 16 other respondents from parading themselves as party officials and fixed October 5, 2023, for hearing of the case. Until the substantive suit is heard,, Senator Kwankwaso will remain a member of the NNPP

Justice Na’abba ruled: “It is, hereby, ordered as follows: An order of interim injunction is, hereby, granted, restraining the respondents by themselves, their agents, cronies, and whosoever is acting or act through them from parading themselves, issuing press releases or granting interviews as national officers, leaders or members of the applicant (NNPP), pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

“An order of interim injunction is, hereby, granted setting aside the purported suspension of Senator Kwankwaso as a member of the applicant and restrains the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising the purported suspension pending the hearing and determination of the substantive motion on notice.”