Capital market: Reps summon Sanusi, Soludo, Dangote, others

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the near collapse of the Nigerian capital market will commence public hearing tomorrow by 10am.That top business tycoons, bureaucrats, ex-bank chief executives, present and former heads of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been summoned by the panel under the chairmanship of Rep. Ibrahim Tukur Elsudi (PDP, Taraba), Daily Trust gathered in Abuja yesterday.The committee was set up by Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal late last month after the House Standing Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, chaired by Rep. Herman Hembe (PDP, Benue) was forced to discontinue with the investigation as a result of bribery allegations levelled against them by Director General of SEC, Ms Arumna Oteh.Top on the list of those to appear before the MPs, according to the source, are former and present governors of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and Professor Charles Soludo; former DG of NSE Professor Ndidi Okereke-Onyueke who was sacked as DG in 2010, business moguls Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Oba Otedoko, Albert Okumagba, Erastus Akingbola, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu and Cecelia Ibru who was convicted of fraud when she headed Oceanic Bank Plc.Also invited are chairmen of some banks such as Alhaji Falalu Bello, Emeka Onwuka and Aje Kigbe. Francis Atuke and MD of Access Bank I. Imokede.In the same vein, former SEC DGs Musa Alfaki and Suleyman Ndanusa will also face the panel.Hembe disqualified himself from the exercise in March but did not go down quietly, as he accused Oteh of trying to entice him with N30 million in the run up to the investigations of the 'near-collapse' of the capital market by his committee.Hembe and Oteh are entangled in corruption accusations, starting when the committee chairman accused her of spending N850,000 on food on a single day and of incurring N30 million hotel bills at the beginning of the investigation but Oteh hit back the following day, saying the committee chairman demanded bribes of N44 million and that he also collected foreign trip estacode from SEC for a journey he didn't make.The House had already mandated its committee on Ethics and Privileges to investigate the allegations.
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