Kwabena Agyapong, once an unalloyed loyalist of Nana Akufo-Addo says he was hounded from the camp of the 2008 flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party and has no choice but to throw his weight behind Mr. Alan Kyerematen. He made the revelation during a discussion on Metro TV’s Good Evening Programme on Thursday and he was provoked by a text message sent by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a supporter of Nana Akufo-Addo. Mr. Agyapong had always explained that his support for Alan Kyerematen, has been the issue of generational leadership in which relatively old leaders must give way to young and energetic ones. But it appears there is more to his support of Alan Kyerematen than mere generational leadership. According to Kwabena Agyapong he was “run down, disrespected and insulted” by people close to Nana-Addo. And his crime was just to offer a hand of support to Nana-Addo after he lost a difficult election to Prof Mills in 2008. “It was after trying very hard to get Nana Addo to build consensus and I was dismissed with a wave of a hand. I read that there were people who even attacked Nana for coming to visit me and discuss with me the way forward because they said who is Kwabena Agyapong,” he revealed. And even though he concedes that Nana Addo himself was not part of this campaign of insult and disrespect, “leadership is key,” he emphasized. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko had sent a text message into the programme, demanding to know why Kwabena Agyapong suddenly decided to support Alan Kyerematen when he Adjapong had in a meeting on January 4, 2009 pledged his unflinching support for Nana-Addo. Kwabena Agyapong did not take kindly to Gabby’s intervention, saying such messages will only provoke people into revealing the “can of worms” which have been hidden for long. “I have supreme respect for Nana and he will be my friend forever; I elected not to support him and I explained to him and he respects that,” Adjapong stated. Touting the credentials of Alan Kyerematen, he said he (Alan) has struck a cord with the polling station executives of the party and was the only candidate among the 17 others who met with all the polling station executives in the 2007 NPP primaries even when they (polling station executives) had no vote. But Boakye Agyarko, the campaign manager of Nana Akufo-Addo who was also on the show said Nana-Addo had long pledged his unflinching support to polling station executives in 1998 when he lost the presidential primaries to then candidate Kufour. On the alleged insults on Kwabena Agyapong, Mr Agyarko noted that Nana Addo has always shown respect for his colleagues but said in a large organisation, there are bound to be people who could disrespect others for diverse reasons. He urged Kwabena Agyapong to bury the hatchet and move on. The two gentlemen were upbeat about the chances of their candidates in tomorrow's presidential primaries. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana