The crisis rocking the Kano State chapter of the New Nigerian People’s Party deepened on Tuesday as the gale of suspension of members rocked the party.
Earlier on Tuesday, the party chairman, Hashimu Dungurawa, announced the suspension of the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Abdullahi Bichi and Commissioner for Transport, Mohammad Diggol over alleged disrespect for the party.
The suspension came after Governor Abba Yusuf brokered peace between stakeholders of the party and top echelons of the Kwankwasiyya movement in Kano, on Monday evening.
However, the national leader of the party and former presidential candidate, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso, said he would not comment on the crisis.
“I do not want to speak on the party crisis in the state,” Kwankwaso told newsmen who asked for his reaction on Tuesday.
When pressed further to speak, he said, “I don’t want to talk, please. Don’t drag me into what I am not supposed to be dragged into. The chairman of the party has spoken and has been speaking, reach out to him.”
Before the suspension of the SSG and commissioner from the party, a reconciliatory meeting brokered by the governor and the two notable personalities affirmed their loyalty to the governor.
Members of the party were however caught unawares when they got the news of the suspension of the two cabinet members.
Efforts to get the reaction of the governor failed as he was said to have travelled out of the state.
Before his suspension, Bichi had dissociated himself from the party’s deviant group popularly known as Abba Tsaya da Kafafunka, meaning “Abba Should Stand On His Feet.”
In a statement issued by the governor’s spokesman, Sanusi Dawakin-Tofa, made available to The PUNCH on Monday evening, Bichi said he should not be associated with the group.
The group, comprising aggrieved NNPP members, at a programme aired on Freedom Radio Kano recently, urged the governor to stop submitting himself to the total control of Kwankwaso. ...Read Full Article [Click Here>]
The group urged Yusuf not to listen to Kwankwaso but instead exercise his powers as the chief executive of the state.
Absolving himself, Bichi said he had never been part of the splinter group or factional group instigating the governor not to obey Kwankwaso.
Bichi, according to the statement, spoke after the peace meeting brokered by the governor.
“The meeting which was held behind closed doors at the Governor’s Office on Monday evening is part of the renewed effort to resolve the lingering crisis rocking the internal structure of the party,” Dawakin-Tofa said in the statement..
He explained that key figures involved in the reconciliation included Bichi and the Bichi Local Government chairmanship aspirant, Hamza Maifata.
Addressing newsmen at the close of the meeting, Bichi accepted the intervention of the governor and promised to resolve his difference with the factional group in his Bichi constituency and groups claiming to be his critics.
”I have since submitted myself and all my activities to Governor Abba Yusuf as our leader and accepted all that he wanted, I am ready to abide with. On the factional group they are talking about, I have nothing to do with them.
”If it were ‘1 to tell 10’ campaign initiatives, everyone knows I’m behind it because I have offices in all the 19 northern states but that is for the presidential campaign,” Bichi was quoted as saying in the statement.
Following the meeting, the NNPP chairman, Dungurawa, announced the suspension of the two government officials.
According to the chairman, the suspension came after the party received multiple complaints from the ward and local government leadership of the party.
Dungurawa said they were suspended because they were disrespecting the party and its leadership.
”The party cannot tolerate actions that undermine its leadership and structure. After receiving formal complaint letters from their wards, and upon confirmation of the allegations by the local leadership, we have no other option but to take this decisive step,” Dungurawa stated.
