Former Member of Parliament for Adentan Constituency and ex-NPP stalwart, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, declares that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) no longer exists, citing an overwhelming influence from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Buaben Asamoa, who recently abandoned his NPP membership along with three other influential figures to back independent presidential candidate John Alan Kyerematen, alleges that the party has been taken over by the president, transforming its character and fostering factionalism.

In an interview on Citi TV's Face to Face program, Buaben Asamoa expresses his concerns, stating, “The party has changed character; a party ought to be an association of like minds with freedom and opportunity to rub minds and seek out the best spaces. The New Patriotic Party that I knew in the beginning is not the New Patriotic Party that exists now. It’s become divided by heavy factionalism. Literally, it has been taken over by the executive, that is the blunt truth. The party doesn’t exist.

"The government has taken the party over, the personality of the president is overbearing and he controls that party, and that means that if you don’t do the president’s wish; if you are not in the president’s good books, you are not useful to that party. That is the bottom line, that is what is happening," he added.

The NPP's General Secretary, Justin Frimpong Kodua, announced on November 21, 2023, that Buaben Asamoa and three other stalwarts, Hopeson Adorye, Nana Ohene Ntow, and Boniface Abubakar Saddique, had forfeited their membership of the party for endorsing and campaigning for Alan Kyerematen, who had resigned from the NPP ahead of the party's presidential primaries.

Alan Kyerematen, who served as the Minister of Trade and Industry from 2017 to 2023 has formed a political movement called Movement for Change, with the Golden Butterfly as its symbol.

He has accused the government and the party's leadership of unfair treatment and bias against him and his supporters. He has also alleged that the flagbearer contest was rigged in favour of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.