NPP Delegates Not Interested In Nana, Alan Factionalism � Kwabena Agyapong

An aspirant to the General Secretary portfolio of the New Patriotic Party, Kwabena Agyei Agyapong has suggestions in sections of the media that the party has been riven by factionalism between supporters of Nana Akufo-Addo and Alan Kyerematen. The latest to join the fray is the state-owned newspaper Daily Graphic, which published in its Thursday, January 23, 2014, edition that the party�s delegates to the national Executive Elections are sharply divided on the perceived deep seated factionalism of Nana Addo and Alan Kyerematen. The NPP has started electing executives to man the party�s structures and are expected to climax the elections by the close of the year where the party per its constitution, is expected to elect its flagbearer for the 2016 General Elections. But even before the party goes into the Regional and National Executive Elections reports, mostly in NDC-inclined newspapers, are rife about growing fault lines between the NPP�s 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his closest rival in the flagbearership race, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen. Speaking on Adom FM�s Morning Show, Dwaso Nsem, Mr. Kwabena Agyapong maintained that delegates of the party are going to vote for competent people to man the affairs of the party and �would not fall [for] this prank of Nana, Alan factionalism.� Kwabena Agyapong expressed disquiet at the �negative, vindictive, divisive propaganda� that some political pundits, including Editor of the Daily Dispatch Ben Ephson, have been pushing. Mr Ephson has always maintained that the NPP is divided on Ashanti/Akyem lines with various caucuses bent on pushing their tribal agendas. But in a strong rebuttal, Kwabena Agyapong discounts insisted there were no Ashanti or Akyem caucuses, although there was a �Ga caucus, Brong Ahafo Caucus and Northern caucus� Citing himself as an example, he indicated that members of the party have always been independent thinkers who act on principle: in 1998 he, an Ashanti supported the flagbearer ambitions of Nana Akufo-Addo, an Akyem at a time Nana was competing with an Ashanti, J. A Kufuor.