Posted by The suspension of Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State and the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, by the party’s founding national chairman, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, its national publicity secretary, Major Agbo, and 16 other party members was overturned on Tuesday by Justice Usman Mallam Na’abba of the Kano State High Court.
He also restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognizing the alleged suspension while the motion on notice was still being heard and decided, prohibiting them from misrepresenting themselves as national officers or leaders of the party.
According to The PUNCH, on August 29, 2023, Kwankwaso was suspended for six months by NNPP chieftains Aniebonam and Agbo following allegations that he had been socializing with politicians outside the party
Former governor of Kano State Kwankwaso finished fourth in the 2023 presidential election.
In a public statement, the Aniebonam and Major group, which controls the NNPP Board of Trustees, claimed that “material evidence” proved that Kwankwaso had engaged in “anti-party activities in various meetings” and political discussions with President Bola Tinubu, the APC candidate at the time, Atiku Abubakar, the PDP candidate, and Peter Obi, the candidate for the Labour Party.
Additionally, the Aniebonam and Agbo group charged Kwankwaso with “financial impropriety relating to the mismanagement of public funds.”
The Kano court set a hearing date of October 5, 2023, but prohibited Aniebonam, Agbo, and 16 other defendants from misrepresenting themselves as party leaders.
According to Justice Na’abba, “It is, hereby, ordered as follows: An order of interim injunction is, hereby, granted, restraining the respondents 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. This order also prohibits the respondents by themselves, their agents, cronies, and anyone else acting or acting through them.
“An order of interim injunction is hereby granted setting aside Senator Kwankwaso’s alleged suspension as a member of the applicant and prohibits the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognizing the alleged suspension pending the hearing and determination of the substantive motion on notice,” reads the order.