OANDO: Intrigues, power play trail SEC DG suspension as House confronts Adeosun

The suspension of the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo is stirring up a lot of happenings.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday delved into the matter on and directed the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun to reinstate the suspended Gwarzo.

The motion was unanimously adopted after it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.

Soon after the news of the DG’s suspension broke, a group, Oando Shareholders Solidarity Group (OSSG) has called for the sack of Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance.

OSDG South-South Coordinator, Mr Clement Ebitimi, who made the call on behalf of the group, alleged that the minister gave Gwarzo the boot because he refused to follow her instruction to stop the forensic audit of Oando Plc.

Read Also : Oando shareholders demand for Tinubu’s resignation, decry SEC’s inaction

It was alleged that Adeosun unearthed a previous petition against Gwarzo and suspended him as SEC boss because he demanded to be served in writing with her order to stop SEC’s forensic audit of Oando Plc.

While passing it’s motion, the House directed that status quo be maintained until the outcome of the investigation to be carried out by the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions within two weeks.

The decision of the House followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance by Diri Duoye (PDP, Bayelsa), who alleged that the conflict between Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and the suspended DG, Mounir Gwarzo over Oando forensic audit and corruption allegation were major factors in the events that led to the suspension.

According to him, there were allegations of interference by the Ministry of Finance in the discharge of SEC’s responsibilities, with the Oando forensic audit matter being largely responsible for the DG’s suspension.

In his contribution, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) said a thorough investigation is necessary in order to forestall the ugly past experience that led to the stock market crisis in the past.

In his remarks, Sani Kaita (APC, Katsina) pointed out that SEC is a very sensitive and very important organisation to Nigeria and the international community and the House should be involved in the investigation of the issues.

Adeosun had suspended Gwarzo last week over allegations of financial impropriety. However, the suspended DG had accused Adeosun of seeking to interfere in ongoing investigations against the management of Oando Plc.

Meanwhile,in spite of the DG’s suspension though, the SEC says it has concluded arrangements to begin the forensic audit of Oando Plc from Wednesday December 6, 2017.

SEC has already written a letter to the Group Managing Director(GMD) of Oando, Mr Wale Tinubu to intimate him of the commencement of the forensic audit and to seek unfettered cooperation with the examiners.

In a statement by Head of Corporate Communications, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bagudu Waziri, the Commission reiterated its commitment to undertake a thorough investigation into the allegations against Oando.

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