NEWS
NNPP Crisis Deepens as Kwankwaso Faction Suspends
By Jude Opara, Abuja
The crisis rocking the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has deepened as the faction loyal to the Presidential candidate of the party, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso led group of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has announced the expulsion of the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Dr.
Boniface Aniegbunam, and his loyalists.The party at its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, accused Aniegbunam, the Publicity Secretary, Agbo Major, Tope Aluko and others expelled, of anti-party activities.
The embattled BoT was accused of creating a parallel group within the NNPP with a view to causing disaffection in the party.
The Kwankwaso group also upheld motions to extend the tenure of the acting national chairman, Mallam Abah-Kawu Ali, and to redesign the party’s logo.
According to the National Secretary of the NNPP Olayoku Dipo, “At the National Executive Committee meeting of the NNPP held in Abuja today August 29th 2023, Dr. Boniface Aniegbunam, Agbo Major and several others were expelled from the party.
“The NEC also moved several other motions relating to the Logo of the party, the Amendment of the constitution, ratification of the State caretaker committees, and suspension of two Articles in the constitution of the NNPP 2022.
“At the meeting were the Executive Governor of Kano State, the National Chairman, Distinguished Senator Kawu Ismaila, the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, Engr Buba Galadima and many others. NEC noted that there were suspended (now expelled) persons who purportedly held a Board of Trustees meeting in Apapa, Lagos this morning. Naturally their meeting was null and void and to no effect.”
However, the party’s only Governor, Abba Yusuf of Kano state, said he would continue to work closely with Senator Kwankwaso in his efforts to reposition the NNPP.
Dipo said that the party was in the process of setting up a properly constituted BoT in line with its constitution.
He also disclosed plans by the leadership to change NNPP’s logo, as he revealed that the opposition party’s fortune at the February election was affected by the current logo.
While commending the National Working Committee (NWC) for its role in stabilizing the political party, the BoT Secretary, Engr. Buba Galadimawa said the party has made some giant strides despite the present crisis in the party.
However, in a swift response, the factional Board of Trustees of the party led by Dr. Boniface Aniegbunam announced the suspension of Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.
The factional Secretary of the BoT, Babayo Muhammed Abdulahi who made the announcement said that Kwankwaso has been suspended for six months over anti-party activities.
The faction also suspended the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The suspension was put to a voice vote by members of the party at a parallel general assembly in Lagos.
The BoT also appointed new national officers headed by Dr Agbo Major as acting National Chairman and Comrade Ogini Olaposi as acting National Secretary alongside about 18 others.
Speaking to newsmen at the end of the meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, Secretary of the BoT, Babayo Muhammed Abdulahi, accused Kwankwaso of meeting secretly with President Bola Tinubu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Mr. Peter Obi, without the board’s authorization.
He further announced that with immediate effect Kwankwaso had been stripped of the NNPP national leader status.
The secretary of the BoT added that the purported suspension of the NNPP founder was a flagrant gross violation of the party’s constitution.
Abdulahi added: “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 authorization from the board.
“This has earned him six months suspension pending the outcome of the investigation by the Disciplinary Committee”.
The acting chairman, who also spoke with newsmen, said his team would hit the ground running by healing the wounds created by the suspended NWC members.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit Zone C, says it intercepted contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N510.92 million between July 15th and September 15th, 2024.The zone covers the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and the five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
This is contained in a statement signed by Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, NCS, Zone C, and made available to journalists on Wednesday. According to the statement, Comptroller Michael Ugbagu, NCS, Zone C, gave the statistics while showcasing the seized contraband to relevant regulatory agencies at the Government Warehouse in Edo.Ugbagu said that the zone also recovered the sum of N25.57 million from demand notices raised based on some infractions noticed, making a cumulative sum of N536.49 million recorded within the months under review.“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without an NAFDAC number.“1,015 sacks of dry donkey meat and skin, 75 jumbo bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used pneumatic tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled foreign tomato paste.“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers.”He noted that the cough syrup with codeine and tramadol without NAFDAC registration numbers, if not intercepted, could have had adverse effects on youths.He added that the items were mostly intercepted along the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressways based on credible intelligence. (NAN)
The Forum of Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has decried the deplorable condition of some federal roads in Nigeria. Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central Chairman of the forum, said this in an interaction with newsmen on Wednesday in Jos. Zazzaga described some of the federal roads as ”death traps”, particularly those within the north-central region.
He said that some of the deplorable roads in the region include Jos-Akwanga, Makurdi-Oturkpo-Otukpa, Makurdi-Ankpa, and Jos-Saminaka. Other roads that needed urgent attention, he said, included Suleja-Minna, Ejule-Otukpa, Ganawuri-Manchok, Lokoja-Abuja, Lapai-Agaie-Bida, Birnin-Gwari-Bokani-Mokwa, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora. ”Currently, the north-central region has the most deplorable roads and highways in the country. ”These deplorable roads have brought severe hardship on the people and lost lives and property through preventable road traffic crashes. ”We call on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the rehabilitation of these roads because good roads are vital enablers of development,” he said. The chairman also called on governors of states within the region to reconstruct the dilapidated roads and seek refunds from the federal government. ”Though these are largely federal roads, they are located within states, and the beneficiaries are the people of these states. ”So we call on state governments to reconstruct these roads and seek refunds from the federal government,” he added. (NAN
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 160 pips to 7.087 against the dollar on Wednesday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreigners exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
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