SEC: Investors await ICPC Appeal Court judgment on Gwarzo

…Ruling portents danger for development of the Nigerian capital market- Stakeholders

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Stakeholders in the Nigerian stock market may have to wait awhile, pending the determination of an appeal filed before the Abuja Division of the appellate court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), against the April 16 ruling by Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf of the FCT High Court.

The National Industrial Court (NIC), last Thursday, ordered the reinstatement of Mounir Gwarzo, the suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with all his salaries and allowances paid to him.

In his ruling, Justice Sanusi Kado held that the minister of finance, who is the second defendant in the suit, lacked the power to suspend Gwarzo, even as he dismissed three issues raised by defence counsel through their preliminary objection, ruling that the suit was not statute barred.

Expectedly, stakeholder reactions to the court judgments have been varied, with some welcoming the development, even as others have accused ICPC’s lawyers of half-hearted prosecution of the case, as they keep presenting only the issue of the severance package, as if that was all.

But members of the Consolidated Capital Market Stakeholders Forum (CCMSF) insist the ruling portends danger for the development of the Nigerian capital market.

CCMSF in a statement by its President, Umar Usman urged the Federal Government to appeal the judgment, given that Gwarzo also has several other issues of corruption.

Also speaking on the issue, the National Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okezie, urged the Federal Government appeal if it so desires, given that “(Mrs. Kemi) Adeosun (the then Finance Minister), when she took the decision to suspend Gwarzo, did not do it as a person. The ministry is still there as an institution, so they can appeal the decision”.

He However blamed the government for the confusion over the status of suspended Gwarzo and called for the appointment of a substantive board for the SEC, which “for over four years has been without a board… this is not good enough.

“If the board was there everything would have been done by the board and all these would not have happened. The ministry does not need to interfere with the work of SEC because the commission is supposed to be independent”, he added.

Justice Baba-Yusuf had while discharging and acquitting Gwarzo and a former Commissioner of SEC, Zakawanu Garuba free of alleged N104.9m severance package and car allowance fraud ruled that ICPC failed to establish a ₦115.8m fraud case against the duo.

The court ruled that ICPC has failed to establish an N115.8million fraud case against ex-Director General of Security & Exchange Commission, Mr Munir Gwarzo and one other.

The court, therefore, discharged and acquitted the defendants of all charges. Case tried ‪in 315 days.