The Ogun State Chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Sunday Oginni, has said the National Working Committee (NWC) has no power to expel him from the party.
Oginni in a statement on Friday, said the purported expulsion came after he withdrew his petition from the election petition tribunal in the state.
OsunDaily News earlier reported that the national leadership of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) expelled the Ogun and Delta states’ chairmen, Sunday Oginni Olaposi and Efe Tobor, respectively.
It was gathered that the Ogun and Delta chairmen were sacked from the party over anti-party activities.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Agwo Major, announced the duo’s expulsion in a statement on Thursday.
He said their sack followed a meeting of the NNPP National Working Committee.
Dr. Major said Oginni’s expulsion alongside his Delta State counterpart, Dr. Efe Tobor, centered on anti-party activities, describing the development as disheartening.
He said Oginni was among members of the party who openly aligned with other parties in the last election.
However, in his reaction, Oginni has tackled the party’s NWC saying they lack the power to sack him.
He explained that he had withdrawn the party’s petition against the victory of Governor Dapo Abiodun over the exclusion of the party logo on the ballot, adding that the state executive had taken the matter to court.
The NNPP chieftain further explained that the petition at the tribunal was filed at his discretion on behalf of the party, and he withdrew it in the interest of the party.
He advanced that the withdrawal of the petition was done for Ogun state to progress and he does not see it as anti-party.
He asserted that for a new Nigeria to be achieved, then everyone must respect the rule of law.
He said, “I will not join issue with the national publicity secretary who alleged that I engaged in anti-party activities because this is already a matter in court.
“The anti-party activities allegation is baseless because the petition at the tribunal was filed at my own discretion on behalf of the party and I withdrew it in the interest of the party.
“It’s on record that Buba Galadima, the Secretary of NNPP’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday on Arise Television buttressed our position that NNPP at the National did not challenge the noninclusion of NNPP name on the ballot logo because they want Nigeria to move forward.
“Consequently, is it a sin for us to get out of the Tribunal to make Ogun State to move forward?”
He, therefore, said that the state party has filed a suit and asked the court for an “interlocutory injunction restraining the National Working Committee of the party from suspending, impeaching, expelling, or dissolving the state executive.”
