A group calling itself the Forum for the Protection of Public Funds, which accused the NPP Member of Parliament for the Efutu Constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin of receiving a bribe of over $900, 000 to terminate a lawsuit against the Agricultural Development Bank (adb), has retreated on the allegations and rendered an apology.
This comes after the Management of adb exonerated the MP over allegations that he received a bribe of more than $900,000 from the bank, to persuade him to abort a lawsuit against them.
[contextly_sidebar id=”6Vk86hSnGUvdLkEqlAZcBGzyMjim4ylk”]The bank’s response to the matter which cleared the air on the alleged corrupt act, was captured in a letter responding to a request from lawyers for the anti-corruption advocacy group asking for further details so they could pursue it in court.
The forum wanted the bank to release an audio tape on which they claim the MP admitted receiving a bribe from the bank to drop the Supreme Court case initiated by his colleague MP, Mark Assibey-Yeboah, to force the state-owned bank from launching its initial public offer (IPO), without parliamentary approval.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News, the President of the forum, Godfred Dotse, explained that their attempt to drag Mr. Afenyo-Markin to court was only to protect public funds.
“… So we needed to pursue this matter and also gather more information from the bank in order to proceed to court as Martin Amidu did some time back, so that is our interest because we are focused on protecting public funds.”
We accept adb’s explanation
Mr. Dotse has however indicated that his outfit’s U-turn on the matter has come about because they are satisfied with the response that adb has given, and they now believe the alleged tape was only an attempt to rundown the MP.
“We want to say we are very much satisfied because the response from the bank clearly indicates that it is a concocted tape… a fabrication aimed at destroying and denting the image of the honorable Member of Parliament, Honorable Alexander Afenyo Markin and it is total blackmail.”
“If we want to pursue this matter up, we will be chasing the wind because the entity in question has written to us and their response is that the honorable member, Alex Afenyo Martin has not extorted any money from them,” Mr Dotse added.
Mr Dotse now feels the only course of action for his group is to render an apology to the Mr Markins.
“What we can do is to render an unqualified apology to honorable Alex Afenyo Markins and also say that this is an act of blackmail and concocted stories just to destroy the honorable Member of Parliament.”
Background
In 2015, Mr. Afenyo-Markin was contacted by his colleague MP for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, who had dragged adb to court over the bank’s IPO launch.
He was of the view that the bank needed parliamentary approval to launch IPO.
The MP had invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to compel the Bank to seek parliamentary approval before it proceeds with the planned public offer.
Questions were raised over why adb went ahead to float its shares when the case was still at the Supreme Court with the Minority’s spokesperson on finance, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei bemoaning the conduct of the bank insisting it was in clear breach of the rules of the court.
But the case was subsequently withdrawn on June 29, a few days before the IPO was launched on Friday July 3, 2015.
Afenyo-Markin invited by CID
In October 2015, the petitioners, Dzifa Gonu, Stephen Kwabena Atuk and Fred Adomaku Williams, got the police to invite Mr. Afenyo Markins over the allegation.
After his statement was been taken, the MP was admitted to bail of GH¢500,000, with two sureties to be justified.
During the floatation of ADB shares earlier last year which generated a lot of controversy, the MP is said to have been caught on tape saying that he went for GH¢250,000 for what he described as legal gymnastics.
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By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana