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---Dan Markin Insists & Says He Is Disgusted! The Board Chairman of the Ghana Railway Development Authority, Dan Markin who is alleged to have negotiated bribe on behalf of former Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, late Finance Minister, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and then Foreign Affairs Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo -Addo, has strongly denied the accusation saying that he is �disgusted� because he never met any of the persons mentioned to negotiate with them. �There has not been any bribe collecting by anybody. I have never fronted for anybody and nobody asked that I should front for him. To be frank, I never met with Nana Akufo Addo�, a clearly unhappy Mr. Markin reiterated. According to him, although his company was contracted by Rockshell to undertake some �financial analysis� and also offer �legal advice�, relative to the settlement of the outstanding payment, he never negotiated for any bribe on behalf of the then government appointees. Mr. Markin made the disclosures on Thursday in an interview with Radio Gold, an Accra-based fm station. �I must put it on record that I want President Mahama to win this election and I will vote for him. I will not vote for Nana Addo but I will not go out there to tell lies and malign Nana Addo�, Mr. Markin stated. He further disclosed that while his company remained as the Consultant for Rockshell �Atukwei Okai (Ayikoi Otoo?) was the Attorney General. Nana Akufo Addo was the Foreign Affairs Minister so I do not really know what is going on� In separate interviews on the same program with Raymond Archer, Publisher of The Enquirer and Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper, both Journalists called for a further probe into the allegation against the former NPP government officials as well as Dan Markin. �It is important to get Dan Markin to speak and be investigated because Mr. Dan Markin today occupies a very important position. He is the Board Chairman of the Ghana Railway Authority. We are going to expand the railway system to the north and so on. A lot of public money is going to go into the railway and if indeed the allegation is true, then Dan Markin should not be holding a public office�, Mr. Pratt averred. He further challenged all persons mentioned in the matter to come out to clear their names. In a related development, a statement issued over the weekend by Dadzie and Associates, Solicitors for Dan Markin has denied any wrongdoing on his part. It also reminded the public that �the decision of the High Court in the circumstances may not be the final decision on the matter�. "Our client however denies all allegations of wrong doing in that case and regrets that "The Enquirer" newspaper failed in its basic duty to cross-check the facts of its story with our client", the statement added. Meanwhile, as published in our Thursday 25th October edition, �contrary to media reports and propaganda effusions from Dr. Tony Aidoo, Kofi Wayo and Dr. Clement Apaak, it has emerged that nowhere in the High Court Ruling of July 15, 2010 relative to Suit No.RPC/86/09 involving UNIEX Ghana Limited (Plaintiff) and Rockshell INTERNATIONAL Limited (Defendant) did the presiding judge, Her Ladyship Mrs. Cecilia H. Sowah J., make a definitive finding or ruling to the effect that Nana Akufo-Addo, Kwadwo Mpiani and the late Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu had allegedly demanded 50% of a judgement debt claim Rockshell International Limited had made on the Government of Ghana (GoG) in 2005. A critical scrutiny of the said judgement shows that the Judge rather found as a fact that Mr. Markin (representing the Plaintiff � UNIEX Ghana Limited) �made representations to Dr. Tei (representing the defendant � Rockshell) about �using� political connections and paying government officials to push through defendant�s claim, representations which induced the defendant to enter into the agreement exhibit C�. This finding of fact by the Judge, according to legal analysts, did not mean that the court had concluded that indeed Akufo-Addo and company were behind Mr. Markin�s representation to Dr. Tei about �using� political connections to procure the judgement debt payment for Rockshell International. Rockshell�s Affidavit in opposition had indicated that �sometime late 2005 during another unsolicited call at the residence of Dr. Tei (Executive Chairman of Rockshell), Mr. Markin (Executive Chairman of UNIEX Limited) again told Dr. Tei that top Ministers in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government had agreed to help him retrieve the money owed to the Defendant but that the amount they were demanding as their share was so high that he would have to be paid 50% of the claim in order to enable him to take care of the demands of the said Government Ministers�. �In respect of pleadings as to the representations made by Mr. Markin, Dr. Tei testified that Mr. Markin had informed him on several occasions that he had seen some government officials who had assured him that they would intercede to get defendant�s claim settled. He said he signed exhibit C because Mr. Markin told him he had to show the agreement to those officials to assure them that they would be paid�, noted Justice Cecilia Sowah. While recalling that government had withheld payment to the �Defendant for over 18 years, the judge underscored that at the time exhibit C was signed, the matter had been in court for a year and the Defendant was trying to negotiate an out of Court Settlement with the Attorney General, however the matter was still dragging. I dare say that most people in those circumstances would have been induced by any representations that assured them of prompt payment�. Interestingly, the Court also noted that there were marked similarities in the agreement which were the subject matter of Suit No. RPC/86/09 and the agreement between Faroe Atlantic Company represented by Dr. Tei and the plaintiff. �Plaintiff�s transactions with Faroe Atlantic and Delta Foods Limited were introduced to show that plaintiff had been providing consultancy services for Dr. Tei prior to the agreements in this suit. However, an important point that came out of the Faroe Atlantic issue is that SIMILAR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT POLITICAL CONNECTIONS WERE MADE BY THE PLAINTIFF WHICH CAME TO NOTHING� DR. TEI SAID THE FAROE ATLANTIC AGREEMENT WAS SIGNED AFTER MR. MARKIN HAD MADE REPRESENTATIONS OF SEEING INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE TO REVERSE THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. HE SAID MR. MARKIN WAS PROMISED US$1,144,600 PER EXHIBIT T IF HE PULLED IT OFF BUT THE MONEY WAS NOT PAID BECAUSE THE PLAINTIFF FAILED TO DELIVER. THIS EVIDENCE WAS NOT CHALLENGED�, emphasised Justice Cecilia Sowah. �It is within this context that any rational being should see the value of exhibit C which the plaintiff and defendant entered into on January 13, 2006. The latter agreement was induced by Markin allegedly to get Nana Addo, Kwadwo Mpiani and the late Baah-Wiredu to effect payment to Rockshell, and yet inspite of the execution of that agreement, the defendant still did not get his money. Why?� queried a legal analyst. The legal analyst also noted that at no time in the course of the litigation did Dr. Tei indicate that he had proof of Mr. Markin�s purported dealings with the named top NPP Ministers on one hand or did any of the NPP Ministers deal with him (Dr. Tei) on the other as proof of Mr. Markin�s alleged representations. �The fact that the Court did not find it necessary to invite or subpoena Nana Addo and Kwadwo Mpiani to testify should underscore the poverty of the allegation against the two gentlemen, and the weight and value placed on that aspect of the Defendant�s Affidavit. The issue was with the credibility and the integrity of the representations the plaintiff had made to induce the Defendant to enter into exhibits A & C, especially the latter which had failed to achieve its stated objective in January 2006 when it was signed and executed. If it was true that exhibit C was a pre-condition for Nana Akufo-Addo & Co., to help effect payment to Rockshell, then why didn�t it achieve its objective?� queried the legal analyst. In conclusion, the legal analyst found it significant that Mr. Markin�s purported efforts to facilitate the judgment debt payment to Rockshell began after Akufo-Addo had exited the office of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and wondered what the then Minister of Foreign Affairs had to do with the payment of judgment debt which had nothing to do with Ghana�s external commercial relations or business interest. �Clearly, this is an infantile but futile attempt to question the impeccable anti-corruption credentials of the NPP Flagbearer in the heat of Election 2012 Campaign. It is manifestly unsustainable and smacks of a vicious kindergarten propaganda stunt not worthy of any serious attention. It is a story meant for the Marines�, he observed.