Member of Parliament for the Efutu Constituency in the Central Region, Alexander Afenyo Markin, says he has forgiven all those who accused him falsely in the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) bribery saga.<\/p>\n
Afenyo Markin, who was the lawyer for his colleague MP Mark Assibey in a suit against adb over the bank\u2019s Initial Public Offer (IPO), was accused of withdrawing the case because\u00a0he received a bribe of more than $900,000 from the bank.<\/p>\n
Adb\u2019s letter <\/strong><\/p>\n However, a letter from the bank dated 4th March 2016, exonerated the Efutu MP in response to a request from lawyers for an anti-corruption advocacy group, the Forum for the Protection of Public Funds, who requested for further details on the alleged corrupt act, so they could pursue it in court.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”uqFlYTAhNvrxONMc1tlgg2Fbs81ee7ba”]The Bank in its letter said, \u201cwe wish to observe that the contents of your letter are not only disturbing and shocking but appears to be a professionally tabulated pack of half-truths completely in sync with outright lies.\u201d<\/p>\n Afenyo-Markin\u2019s accusers apologize<\/strong><\/p>\n The group, subsequently apologized for the allegations.\u00a0Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>, Afenyo Markin, who went quiet in the heat of the allegations, says\u00a0he bears no grudges against his accusers.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me say that these allegations tested my patience\u00a0a lot. Over the period, I went through some counseling. I had very responsible and prominent Ghanaians advising me on a whole number of issues that I should take it easy. So I wasn\u2019t surprised when we heard of it that the bank has finally written.”<\/p>\n Simply put it was blackmail<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cTo me, I\u2019ve forgiven all those who came out with these wild allegations against me. I think it\u2019s part of our body politics that people will come out with issues against an individual, but to the extent that some of these things will be aimed at blackmailing or destroying you without real basis, I think it is most unfortunate. Simply put, it was blackmail. I live it to the conscience of all those individuals who teamed up to do what they thought they were doing to destroy me. In my heart, I will not begrudge anybody. In my heart, I will move on as a Ghanaian and as a Member of Parliament so that the people see my work and retain me to contribute to the development of the nation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Efutu MP also said the trials he went through thought him a number of lessons which will help shape his political career but will not kill the fire in him which is needed for development.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t go solo again <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve learnt also quite a number of things as a politician. I have learnt a lot, and when I say I\u2019ve learnt a lot, I\u2019ve learnt a lot. I will be guided by the lessons I\u2019ve learnt and I will continue to do the things I\u2019ve been doing but not to be acting solo,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Teamwork in Parliament <\/strong><\/p>\n Afenyo Markin said his new life will be to work in a team and under the leadership of his party.<\/p>\n \u201cIn parliament we work as a group, I will not let my personal initiatives override the collective interest of my group. So I intend like before to continue to work as a back-bencher consulting my leadership in the things that I believe will serve our party\u2019s interest or acting on the instructions of leadership working together with my colleagues in the minority to win power and more seats,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Background <\/strong><\/p>\n 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\u2019s IPO launch.<\/p>\n He was of the view that the bank needed parliamentary approval to launch IPO.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Questions were raised over why adb went ahead to float its shares when the case was still at the Supreme Court with the Minority\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n But the case was subsequently withdrawn on June 29, a few days before the IPO was launched on Friday July 3, 2015.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n