Chairman of the NPP Council of Elders, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, has suggested that Alan Kyerematen’s decision to leave the party was meant to weaken its electoral chances.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on September 17, he said the former Trade Minister’s resignation before the 2024 elections inflicted unnecessary damage on the party.

“I remember that Da Rocha, whom we all revere, when Alan resigned the first time, he said good riddance, and he was the party chairman at that time.

"So I really don’t know when it comes, it will be discussed. And I believe that sometimes you begin to wonder whether, and I’m being very frank with you in this interview, it was deliberately meant to scuttle our front and make us lose, and sometimes I wonder what,” he said.

He questioned the justification given for Alan’s departure.

"And sometimes I wonder because there was absolutely no need... if you have a nationwide election and one person gets into a physical fight and then he says, because of that, I’m resigning.

"Well, if you want to form your own political party, have the courage to say, I am forming my political party. Don’t link that to the fact that the party was not able to protect you,” he stressed.

Asked about the impact of Alan’s exit on the 2024 polls, Hackman said the NPP suffered both electorally and reputationally.

“Well, even one vote is important, and he took a few thousand votes, especially from the Ashanti Region... Not only that, but they had the boys go on television and say all manner of things, insults and what have you, and people always saying ‘oh, they were with them once upon a time, so what they are saying is true,’ and it wasn’t helpful to us,” he explained.

He stressed that the party must not continue to tolerate such behaviour.

“So if you want to come, you join a party, you have to behave yourself. And I don’t think that in future, we shall, well, I will not cast my vote for such a situation at all. In future, if you create problems for us, you will go. I mean, we can go on, life goes on,” he declared.

The veteran politician noted that politics can be unpredictable, but insisted that discipline must prevail.

“Politics is quite interesting, and these are the sort of things that we shouldn’t be encouraging at all. In the UK right now, some people from the Conservatives are going to Reform. But if you go, stay there, stay there with your problem, don’t come and do that again,” he advised.

He, however, distinguished between leaders and ordinary members who followed them.

“But those ones, they were the leaders who created a problem, and the young mass followers should come back. They should come back because they know that they are not going to go anywhere,” he concluded.