Former NPP Chairman Freddie Blay has played down reports that party bigwigs are scheming to remove Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin from his parliamentary post, following allegations that he did not actively support Dr Mahamudu Bawumia during the party's fiercely contested January 2026 presidential primary.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Joy News' Gemma Appiah, Blay said he had no knowledge of any such plan and had not been consulted by anyone pushing for the Effutu MP's removal.

"I'm not aware there's a plan being hatched like that. It has not come to my notice. Nobody has even talked to me about it," Blay said.

Following Bawumia's victory in the 31st January primary, where he polled 56.48 per cent in a five-way race, questions began swirling within NPP ranks about which senior figures had backed him and which had quietly supported rival candidates.

Afenyo-Markin found himself at the centre of those conversations, with some party members and Bawumia loyalists reportedly pushing for consequences.

Blay, however, was careful not to take sides. While dismissing the existence of any concrete plan, he pointedly reminded his audience that the power to act on such matters ultimately rests with the party, not individual factions or the parliamentary caucus.

"It's not even the party, the member, the caucus, that decided. The party makes a decision. The party's prerogative, as it were, to front the leadership of the party," he said. "But the party has a prerogative of doing so."