Former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Awentami Afoko, says the party is yet to fully realise its potential, describing it as still in a phase of rebuilding and rebranding.
“The NPP as a party has not recognised its potential. It hasn’t achieved its potential. It’s still a party of working out and rebranding, rebuilding,” Afoko stated.
Speaking on Starr FM on Thursday, September 4, 2025, Afoko contrasted the NPP with its main rival, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which he described as highly organised and militant during his time in frontline politics.
“I saw the NDC to be a militant party at the time that I came. It seems the roles have reversed,” he said.
According to him, after his removal from office through a court process, the NPP began nurturing vigilante groups that later became notorious in Ghana’s political space.
“After I had been thrown out by the court, we started developing Invisible Forces, Delta Forces, Bolgatanga Bulldogs, and we rather became militants,” he revealed.
Afoko was elected NPP National Chairman in April 2014 but was suspended indefinitely by the party’s National Executive Committee in October 2015. He challenged the decision in court, but the High Court dismissed his case in 2016.
Since then, he has largely kept a low profile, until recently when he began commenting again on party affairs. In August 2025, he criticised the NPP’s decision to bar estranged members returning under its general amnesty from contesting internal elections for two years, calling the move unacceptable.
Afoko’s renewed interventions have reignited debate within the party about its tradition of renewal, internal democracy, and how it manages long-standing divisions.
Source: myjoyonline
