Two sets of tape recordings made public in quick successions this week have revealed heightened hostilities between the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the John Agyakum Kufour camps in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The two opposing camps in the NPP are hauling serious accusations and counter-accusations at each other in a new wave exposing degenerating relations between Akufo-Addo and his long-time rival, ex-President Kufuor- both of whom preside over the Akyem and Ashanti power blocs in the NPP respectively.

A tape released on social media earlier in the week, captured the voice of one Esther Agyeman, a communications member of the Nhyiaeso Constituency of the NPP, revealing what the Kufuor camp considers the back-stabbing and divide-and-rule tactics being deployed by Akufo-Addo and his loyalists is to gain a stranglehold on the main opposition party.

Ms. Agyeman, who is a loyalist of former Health Minister Dr. Richard Anane- who is in turn a John Kufour/Alan Kyeremanteng loyalist and an avowed opponent of Akufo-Addo- alleged in the circulating tape that Akufo-Addo has hatched a grand plan to unseat certain Parliamentary candidates of the NPP whom he considers loyalists in the camp of John Kufuor/ Kyeremanteng.

The list reportedly includes personalities such as Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, Patrick Boamah, O.B Amoah, Frank Annor Dompreh, Collins Owusu Amankwa, Dr. Richared Anane and Francis Addai Nimo; all of who he says worked against his flagbearership bid for the 2016 presidential race.

According to Ms. Agyeman, the Kufuor/Kyeremanteng camp considers Akufo-Addo’s divide-and-rule tactics as being responsible for the party’s failure to win the Presidential elections for the second consecutive time.

“He has monopolized the party, but the things he is doing to the party would not bring victory to the party. When we lose elections, nobody blames him [Akufo-Addo], they rather blame Kufuor and his loyalists for sabotaging his [Akufo-Addo] presidential bid,” Ms Agyeman was heard saying on the tape.

According to her, Akufo-Addo has gained so much power in the party that during primaries for the Parliamentary seats in the NPP, Akufo-Addo prepared a list of people he deemed fit to hold parliamentary positions in the party. Conversely, he orders the party hierarchy to drop those he considers not loyal to him, “this is what is affecting the party,” Ms Agyeman complained.

However, in a quick rebuttal from the Akufo-Addo camp, one “Akua” was contracted to record a similar tape to reply the allegations being made by Esther Agyeman.

In her rebuttal, Akua explained that Akufo-Addo has really not gotten over the deliberate scheme hatched by John Kufuor in the 2008 elections (when he was president during the NPP regime) to deny him the presidency.

When that election reached a critical stage requiring tiny town Tain to break the deadlock between Akufo-Addo and John Evans Atta-Mills, his main opponent in the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Kufuor-led government refused to release resources to facilitate the monitoring of the election in Tain, leading to the NDC taking advantage to turn the tide against the incumbent NPP.

“It was a deliberate attempt [by ex-President Kufuor] to prevent Akufo-Addo from becoming Ghana president,” Akua charged.

This recent tussle comes in the wake of a recent expose by Africawatch that the Kufuor/Kyeremanteng camp are behind the dreaded agenda 2020 being hatched to disintegrate the NPP because they are losing grip of the party.

The magazine claimed Kwadwo Mpiani, the Chief of Staff in the erstwhile NPP administration of John Agyekum Kufour is the ‘Hatchet man’ in the NPP’s own Agenda 2020, as they work behind the scenes to ensure the defeat of the party’s 2016 flagbearer, Akufo-Addo, in next year’s Presidential elections.

According to Africawatch, "It is suspected that, a former Chief of Staff of President Kufuor is the mastermind behind the Agenda 2020 plan.

Mpiani happens to have a nephew who is married into the Mahama family. For Mpiani, family ties may trump party loyalties, or they can become an excuse for not helping Akufo-Addo,” Africawatch stated; adding that, “In any case, Agenda 2020 assumes that its adherents will sit back instead of helping Akufo-Addo’s campaign. But more dangerously, they could sabotage him.”

It is believed that the Kufuor/ Alan Kyeremanteng faction in the NPP are not particularly happy about Akufo-Addo being the party’s flagbearer, and they intend to make Nana Akufo-Addo lose next year’s elections by starving him of needed resources.

The group is said to have dubbed Akufo-Addo as a ‘risk factor’. According to Africawatch, its findings indicate that the group has calculated that if Akufo-Addo wins the Presidential elections, he may sideline them.

According to the magazine, Mr. Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, the National Chairman and General Secretary respectively of the NPP, have been planted in those key positions by the Agenda 2020 clique to ensure that Akufo-Addo’s plans to win the Presidential elections becomes unsuccessful.

Loyalists of Akufo-Addo have indeed made it clear that the twice defeated presidential candidate of the NPP has an inherent mistrust for these two top party executives who have actively supported Alan Kyeremanteng’s candidature for the flagbearership against Akufo-Addo.

Akufo-Addo is said to be trying to counter the effect of a potential sabotage from his opponents within by setting up his personal campaign office to be run by his family members and friends whom he trust.

His 2016 campaign is designed to run parallel to the NPP’s official campaign machinery, the Republic newspaper has gathered.