A fresh crisis is currently rocking the Ondo State chapter of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) over the replacement of Oluwatosin Ayeni with Gbenga Edema as the governorship candidate of the party on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) portal.
Acting National Secretary of the NNPP, Comrade Sunday Ogini, said the replacement of the candidate that emerged at the governorship primary of the party, allegedly by supporters of the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, was unacceptable to the party.
Addressing newsmen in Akure, Ondo State capital, Ogini maintained that Senator Kwankwaso has been expelled from the party and as such, does not have the power to replace the party’s governorship candidate.
Gbenga Edema, a lawyer, was on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, declared as the NNPP’s governorship candidate following the withdrawal of the governorship placeholder of the party, Oluwatosin Ayeni.
The State Chairman of NNPP, Mr. Peter Olagookun, said that Ayeni willingly withdrew his candidacy to pave the way for a better candidate from the party.
Edema, a former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was unveiled at the NNPP’s special meeting where he was ratified as the governorship candidate of the party in Akure.
Ogini said the party’s leadership has dragged INEC to court for accepting to replace Ayeni’s name with Edema as the party’s governorship candidate by the Kwankwaso’s loyalists.
He described the loyalists of the former Kano State governor as fake members of the party following the expulsion of their principal from the NNPP.
Reading what he called the resolutions of the party, Ogini said, “Engineer Akintan Michael is now the governorship candidate of the party, while Chief Mrs. Kemi Fasua is the deputy governorship candidate of the party.
“The leadership of NNPP in the Southwest secured the consent of the founder of NNPP, Dr. Boniface Okechukwu Aniebonam to file a suit at the Federal High Court, Akure to compel INEC to update the name of Engr. Akintan Michael and Chief Mrs. Kemi Fasua as the governorship and deputy governorship of the party for the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State.
“The national leadership of NNPP shall also pursue to a logical conclusion in another suit filed at the Ondo State High Court, Akure against Mr. Gbenga Edema who was illegally nominated and fielded by the illegal Kwankwasian group of expelled Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso against the constitution of the Federal Republic and Electoral Act.
“Gbenga Edema was never a member of NNPP and the best we know of him is that he is a bonafide member of All Progressives Congress (APC) and also a governorship aspirant in APC. Therefore, it is for any lawless group to make him a candidate for a constitutional political party like NNPP.
“The Southwest leaders hereby agreed with the National leadership of NNPP that Mr. Gbenga Edema is unknown to the party and therefore declared persona non grata in our party.”
