Afenyo Markins and Blay allegedly fight over bribe money

Vocal New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Efutu Constituency, Alex Afenyo Markins has reportedly fingered some top NPP members for leaking the damning secret tape capturing him boasting about the bribe he received to stop his fight against ADB Bank’s proposed Initial Public Offer (IPO).

The Republic Newspaper gathered from sources close to the NPP that Hon. Afenyo Markins disclosed to some people in confidence that he actually believed Freddie Blay and some others were responsible for the tape going viral because he [Afenyo Markins] had refused to budge to his [Freddie Blays] demand for him to share some of the bribery booty with him.

Afenyo-Markins who sought an injunction against the controversial ADB IPO is alleged to have been bribed with five-figure sums (allegedly more than US$400,000) by some interested groups to back down from the writ he filed at the Supreme Court to frustrate the planned ADB IPO.

In the incriminating tape, Afenyo Markins is said to have ordered that some of the money was to be wired through his sister’s account and if all his demands are done he will comply by staging a phony “Legal gymnastics” in the Supreme Court, so the case is thrown out.

Earlier, the Minority NPP parliamentarians who first vehemently raised opposition to the IPO were alleged to have been bribed with sums ranging between US$450,000 to US$1 million to drop their opposition to ADB’s multi-million dollar IPO on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

However, the amount used to shut down the NPP MPs are said to have not satisfied Afenyo-Markins whose lawyer – NPP’s New Juaben South MP, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah – filed the writ of injunction at the Supreme Court.

Afenyo Markins is alleged to have been approached by Freddie Blay and some unnamed negotiators who used Freddie Blay’s reported family ties with the ADB boss, Stephen Kpordzih, to appeal to him to agree to their terms and drop the case.

This paper gathered that, after Hon. Markins agreed on the terms, Freddie Blay allegedly approached him for his cut in the deal, a situation that Hon. Markins did not take kindly to. The resultant tension was said to have sparked the leakage of the tape.

The embattled Afenyo Markins has not denied the conversation on the tape, but has, however, stated that his voice was doctored to reflect his involvement in the intricate trail of bribery in the controversial ADB public offer.

This denial has however not abated serious questions raised since the tape became public. For instance, questions have been raised about the sudden relaxation in the stance of the Minority NPP, who were quite vociferous in their opposition to the IPO.

Earlier, the minority parliamentarians led by former Finance Minister, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei had accused the bank of pre-selling some shares of the bank to a foreign investor way before modalities of its IPO was endorsed.

On 4th June, the management of ADB signed an MoU with a foreign company known as Atlas Mara Limited for an initial equity investment of $50 million in the bank.

Under the terms of the agreement, Atlas Mara is to be given ordinary shares to the tune of 25% of ADB as part of the IPO.

ADB’s Initial Public Offer (IPO) commenced earlier this year with the intent to offer more than 80 million shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). This IPO raised questions, as the Minority thought, being a public bank, ADB needed to have first received a parliamentary approval before going ahead with the share offer.

Even though the secret tape appears to show his stance has also been compromised by the alleged bribe, the Effutu MP is threatening to go the full scale of the suit he has brought against the ADB.

“The ADB case will never be withdrawn,” he said in an interview with Randy Abbey on Metro TV on Thursday. However, critics say his seeming determination to go full scale with the suit is a mere smokescreen because he has already indicated in the tape that he was merely going to the Supreme Court to present a weak case that will cause the court to throw out the case.

The bank on Monday served notice of the indefinite suspension of its IPO that would have paved the way for it to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

A statement signed by its Resource Coordinator, Justice Apenkwa, directed its agents to return all shares sold.

“Please be advised of the suspension of the Initial Public Offer of ADB shares until further notice. Kindly transfer what you have already sold to the returning officer/Financial Controller,” the statement in part read.

What triggered the suspension was not readily made known by the bank but industry players say it may not be far from the bribery allegations.

It was the third time the bank had suspended the IPO which was scheduled to close in October 2015.