 The National Auditor of the New Nigerian People's Party and Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee that recently expelled some high-ranking members of the party, Ladikwa Johnson. Earlier, we know a fraction of the party of the New Nigerian People's Party under the leadership of Major Agbor expelled. The presidential candidate of the party, Senator Rabiu Mosa-Kwan-Kwa Sohova, what they called his alleged anti-party activities and misappropriation of the party campaign funds. Well, today we want to talk about what's transpired in the party and we have Ladikwa Johnson, who is the Auditor and Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee with us in the studio. Mr. Johnson, you granted interviews over and over on this issue of the NMPB, even when he started. I remember the first time we had this issue where Chairman of the different parties had said that they do no longer recognize Mr. Kwan-Kwa Soho as their party flag where I remember the headline in one of the papers that said that he should stop parading himself as the leader of the party. Who are these members and who are the people you have now expelled? Are they the same people? Good evening. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Well, firstly let me put on record that Rabiu Mosa-Kwan-Kwa Soho was never suspended. Neither was he expelled. You had a group of renegade members, now former members, who gathered themselves in Lagos, in Aqaqa, and said that they had suspended Senator Konkujo, myself, and the National Working Committee. They claimed that they were the board of trustees of the party. But look, we operate a constitution and our constitution is subject to the electoral acts which is subject to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What actually happened was that two gentlemen were expelled right at the beginning of the saga and two states, the executive committees, were dissolved. These two, one of them ran to Dr. Agibunan, one of the founders of the party. I want you to put on record that Major Agbo announced the suspension and expulsion of these two men. The eight other states that had their executive committees dissolved Major Agbo announced the same thing, right? Somewhere in between, unfortunately Dr. Agibunan, being one of the founders, took it upon himself to write letters outside of the party to say he was reversing decisions that had been taken constitutionally by the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee. And the National Working Committee felt that even if he was one of the founders, they couldn't take it any longer. And he was suspended along with Major Agbo. He had rules to play. Now they gathered immediately after the suspension and said they suspended or they expelled the National Working Committee and then they suspended Senator Konkozo. And then they purported to say that they had established a Board of Trustees and the National Working Committee. And once you do that, trying to establish a parallel, you're out, no matter who you are. And that's what happened. I think on the 29th of August, we had a National Executive Committee meeting. It was attended by INEC. They had due notice, 21 days notice. It had in attendance a governor of kind of state, senators, members of House of Reps, the National Working Committee and the members of the National Executive. The 36th state chairman. I want to put on record that they were all there. The 36th state chairman. And the entire NEC, except of course Major Agbo, who we still haven't replaced him with another national publicity secretary. Now what? I wonder why the press have never asked them. How do you go from complaining about your suspension within a week to saying that you are now a national chairman, you now have a faction? The definition of faction. And I've taken it up with a lot of members of the press, my friends, say Konkozo Group. There's no Konkozo Group. But this is one of the issues that we're being raised that Mr. Konkozo has decided to make the NNPP some part of his Konkoziya movement. No, no, no, don't get it wrong. I'll tell you what's happening. Mr. Konkozo has not decided. When they were happy, when Konkozo came in in March 2022, he came in with the Konkoziya with the National Movement, the TNN. You understand? They had an MOU with what we call the old NNPP. Old NNPP said, oh, let's keep 13 states. At that stage, 13 men out of 36 isn't Konkozo in the majority already. It's because he has the people, right? But does that mean he owns the party? No, no, no. Does he own the party now? He doesn't. No one owns the party. We the people. And that is the problem they have. The mentality is that, oh, it is our party. It cannot be your party. It's the party of every subscriber, everyone who is a member of the party. And that is why we said you cannot continue to act as if it's a one-man business. This is a bigger party now. Who did you know the NNPP for? It's been registered for 21 years or so. But when we came in, yes, within a year, we didn't do as well as we wanted to do. But we had a state, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's on the map. So we say to them, look, a faction is this group, a small group that comes out of the other group. Now you would have been a faction of the party if you had remained within the party. But now you have been expelled, so you are no longer a faction of the party. So I think the press should address it properly. Major Albo and his cohorts or Arne Boonam and his cohorts have a group that claim that they are the real NNPP. And you have the national auditor of the NNPP here. Not Concoso's national auditor. National auditor of the NNPP. That's what it is. And we took them to court. We have a restraining order that they should stop parading themselves. If at the end of the day the court says, oh, give it back to them, fine. You understand? But the bottom line is that the court has told them, stop parading yourselves. Come here, let's talk to the sinner. That's what we want to do. We don't just throw in casting aspersions. Does Concoso sell forms? They claim that there were forms sold up to a viewer. But let's go back to the start. Let's talk about the relationship, the internal working relationships between the party's flag bearer and, of course, the 16 other states that, you know, they were given. Even though, you know, could there be a reason for the people? It might not be all of them, but is there a reason for there to not be a sense of belonging? Tell us this agitation. This is it. When you have an MOU, right, you want to work together. Does I care about an MOU? They don't. The MOU was bringing you together. Once you begin to have Congresses, what they had at that time was that after the MOU they dissolved all organs of the party. They put in a caretaker committee, including people like Major Abo, put them in and they midwifed the Congresses from world to local government, to states, to Zono and then the National Convention. So you had the party established under the Constitution. So anything else you do must be under the Constitution. There are plethora of Supreme Court cases over the matter. And that's why you said, okay, let's go, let's come and sort it out. You don't not say that, oh, we had an MOU, you understand, unknown to the Constitution, unknown to INEC, that these people will come and work with us. And since we said that they should hold on to how many states and we hold on to whatever states at the beginning, that is what it has to be. No. But that aside, no one was going after their states. Some of the states affected where some people were states led by Cuan-Cosella members. A lot of the states, in fact, more states were states led by Cuan-Cosella members. And they didn't perform during the elections. Some of the states were dissolved because the structures were not there. There was a state, the man was chairman, his wife was the woman leader. He also made his wife the House of Reps candidates, all just to collect money, collection money. Some of the states, the money for agents got to them, they didn't disperse to the agents. Went away with millions. And you want us to keep looking at them. You see, that's the problem. In Nigeria, we have sentiments in everything. And that's where we are at today. And I remember the same Dr. Iebunam called me, called members of the National Working Committee. He set the whole thing up because himself and Senator Cuan-Cosella met. And I agreed that, look, let's overhaul this thing. Let's get ready for the future. And we started looking at the states. Just finally, before we go, because we're out of time, but there are those who posit that there is the hand of Esau in all of this. And you do know what I mean by that. Yes, I do. Do you agree that there might be the hand of Esau in this matter? Yes, we know for certain that, yes, we have problems here and there, but our friends who are no longer our friends, and I say they are no longer in the party, now have well established, I would call them the opposition, in the country who are funding them. And at the end of the day, it's all about, oh, it's Cuan-Cosella, let's destabilize him because of Kano. It's always about Kano. Kano is the jewel in elections when it comes to elections in Nigeria. So that is that. But we will face them. We will do what we can. We are ready for the rule of law. We'll do what we can, and as soon as we can face them, then we continue to rebuild and move our party forward. Well, here's to hoping that you can move beyond Kano. But Ladigwa Johnson is the national auditor and chairman disciplinary committee in the new Nigerian People's Party, NMPP. Always a pleasure to have you in the studio. Thanks for having me. All right. Well, that's the show tonight. I want to thank you all for being part of our conversations. We'll be back tomorrow talking for development. I am Mary Anaconda. Have a great evening.