Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Council of Elders, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, has called for firmer sanctions on party members who repeatedly resign and later re-join.
According to Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, who is also Former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, these actions disrupt the progress and organization of the party.
Speaking on Joy News on September 17, he said, “There are a few of them, without mentioning names, who resigned, then came back, then resigned, then came back. It’s not a child’s game”
Reflecting on past decisions, Hackman Owusu-Agyeman said the NPP should adopt stricter conditions for reacceptance into the party after a member resigns.
“I think that in the past, we have been too liberal, lenient with people who have done that and eventually disturbed our forward march to better organization,” he said.
He also cited the reaction of the late Bernard Joao da Rocha, who was a founding member and the first National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, to Alan Kyeremanten’s first resignation from 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,“ he stated.
Alan Kyerematen resigned from the NPP in 2023 and launched his own political movement, the Movement for Change (M4C), to contest the 2024 general election as an independent candidate.
This was not the first time Kyerematen had left the NPP as he previously resigned in 2008 as well.
Hackman Owusu-Agyeman further questioned whether some resignations were intentionally done to weaken the party’s prospects.
He explained, “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.”
Mr. Owusu Agyeman refused to support such cases in future, stating, “I will not cast my vote for such a situation at all. In future, if you create problems for us, you go. We can go on, life goes on.”
