Investment tribunal passes 70 judgement in 2 yrs – Chairman

The chairman of Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST), Isiaka Isaiah Idoko says it has successfully passed seventy judgement since it came into full operation in 2017.

Idoko made this known at the opening of the new legal year as well as the two years anniversary of the tribunal.

“The Tribunal has handled about 90 cases. We inherited about 54 cases and all have been properly handled in less than one year plus other new ones which have also been handled. Over 70 judgments have been passed within a period of 2 years of its inauguration,” he said.

The chairman however lamented the poor funding of the Tribunal and also union tussle as the major challenges facing the tribunal.
“Funding is one of the major challenges we have here.

Another is the issue of the Labor union. Under the union called AUPCTRE, in fact they were prepared to bury IST even before we came here. The tribunal was in limbo for a period of 2 yrs, before the government set up an administrative panel to investigate the happening. 

“On our inauguration in September 19th 2017, they handed us some documents to look at, and to implement it became a problem.

“Funds come in piecemeal, even if the law says 100%, the condition of this place is like what is obtainable in the industry. We get the fund for paying allowances from trading on the floor of the Nigeria Stock Exchange where we get about 0.01%, that is if there is trading, and if there is none we get nothing. 

“So this has been a major challenge because staffs are not sure of what they will get and this has been a major cause of the restiveness here,” he lamented.

The chairman however said that they have set up dialogue with Nigerian Stoke Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission with regards to finding a solution to funding the tribunal.

On the mandate of the tribunal, he explained that the mandate of the tribunal is to settle disputes within the period of 90 days from when a case is first heard, otherwise whatever judgement we give outside the stipulated period will become void.

“The Tribunal has 10 members including the Chairman of the Tribunal. There are 4 full time members plus the Chairman out of which one is a non lawyer operator in the Market with experience who gives professional advice on Capital Market transactions.

We also have 5 part-time members too who are required to be knowledgeable about Capital Market transactions,” the chairman explained.