NNPP Rejects Kwankwaso’s Expulsion, •Yusuf, Others’ Suspension by Party’s NEC

 APC: your party, not Tinubu, will suffer in Kano over emirship crisis

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano

New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has condemned the purported expulsion of the former presidential candidate of the party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the suspension of Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf, among others, from the party.

But All Progressives Congress (APC) warned NNPP that it was the one, and not President Bola Tinubu, that would suffer re-election casualties in 2027 as a result of the Kano State emirate crisis.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of NNPP had Sunday affirmed six months’ suspension of Yusuf and the expulsion of Kwankwaso from the party.

The resolutions of the party were contained in a communique issued in Abuja, and jointly signed by Umar Jibril, and Omolara Johnson, following the NEC meeting held on May 27.

But in a swift reaction, the state chairman of NNPP, Hashimu Dungurawa, said those who took the unpopular decision were not bonafide members the party.

Dungurawa said the party viewed the expulsion of Kwankwaso and the suspension of Yusuf as laughable as it was carried out by expelled members, sponsored by external forces.

He stated, “Let me be clear to you that those people who said they suspended Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, and expelled Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, were long ago expelled from the party over alleged anti-party activities and connivance with opposition to create problems in our party.

“I wondered how a sponsored group of expelled members could suspend Abba Kabir Yusuf, who is the only governor of the NNPP in the country, and expelled Kwankwaso, the party’s national leader.

“The NNPP has only one single governor and the presidential candidate of the party, who nurtured it to its present position, but you are saying you suspended them. Can this make any sense to anybody?

“As a party, we remain resolute and strong. We would never be distracted by the evil machinations of some outsiders, who are hell-bent to destroy our formidable party, the NNPP.”

Dungurawa claimed to know those behind the crisis in NNPP. He said they “are those oppositions who are afraid of the emergence of Kwankwaso as the next president of Nigeria in 2027, God willing.”

But the Kano State APC chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, in a statement yesterday, said bringing up the issue of 2027 presidential election by the Kano NNPP chairman in the face of an apparent failure of the state government was not only diversionary, but also an indication of a plan to plunder the resources of the state in the name of candidature.

Abbas said, “Aside widely acknowledged poor performance of Governor Abba Yusuf-led NNPP government in Kano State in the last one year, the party’s penchant for causing and sponsoring crisis in a peaceful state he inherited and some of his anti-people’s policies are factors voters will consider in the next election.

“It is a public knowledge that while other governors were commissioning one project or the other to mark their one year in office, the NNPP Kano State Government was busy distracting the good people of Kano from his obvious failures through the contentious Emirate law as a tactic from his inadequacies in office.”

Abbas insisted that NNPP and its national leader, Kwankwaso, would suffer the consequences of the ongoing emirship tussle.

He said the crisis of confidence rocking the factionalised opposition NNPP was embarrassingly exposing its dismal failure.

He stated that the NNPP government in Kano State started on a wrong footing by going against the very essence of governance, which was the people, and always wanted to distract the people from its apparent failure.

Abbas stated, “The people of Kano State whose houses were demolished and rendered homeless will not forget in a hurry. The people of Kano State whose sources of economic survival and businesses were destroyed, will not vote NNPP again, among many other categories of people already badly affected by the current misfit government in Kano state.”