The Federal High Court has dismissed the three cases filed against the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission by BGL Plc, its sponsored individuals and subsidiaries.
The SEC, through its Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC) had earlier withdrawn the operating licence of BGL Securities Limited and BGL Asset Management Limited and also placed fines and various suspension sentences on the capital market operator’s directors and staff members, following the receipt of 10 complaints received by the SEC at various times from May 20, 2015 to November 10, 2015 valued at N2.9 billion.
BGL Securities however faulted the sanctions slammed on it by the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the regulatory body disregarded judicial process before doing so.
BGL was quoted in a statement as saying “We refer to our ongoing issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the matter of the Investment and Securities Act 2007 between Afolabi Gabriel Oluwaseyi & 8 Others and BGL Securities Limited & 22 others which the SEC placed before its Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC) with case number APC/1/2016.
“Although the case is subject to a current litigation at the Federal High Court and therefore subjudice, we have been made aware that the SEC in disregard of judicial process went ahead to hold the APC meeting. As law abiding citizens, BGL and its executives in obedience to the arising judicial process did not attend the APC meeting and were not represented. We are therefore quite shocked the APC could reach a decision on a case that is subjudice and without giving us a fair hearing.”
In its rulings, the Court dismissed all the cases “for being incompetent”, handing a major victory to the regulatory and investor protection mandates of the Commission.
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