Pressure mounts for Gwarzo’s recall

Pressure are being mounted by stakeholders in the Nigerian Capital Market for the recall of the suspended Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo.

Gwarzo was last week suspended by Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun over corruption allegations, and she instituted a panel of inquiry to probe the matter. Suspended alongside the DG were the SEC’s head of the media division, Abdulsalam Naif and the deputy head of legal department, Anastasia Braimoh.

Consequently, the House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to investigate the circumstances that led to the suspension and mandated the Committee on Capital Market and Institutions to probe the matter and report back within two weeks.

The lawmakers also directed that all parties should maintain status quo, pending the outcome of the investigation, with some members calling for Gwarzo’s immediate recall.

In Abuja yesterday, some civil societies and stakeholders under the aegis of Truth and Transparency Initiative said Gwarzo should be recalled to finish the work he has started and that the reason given by Adeosun was “clearly a subterfuge” as she failed to act on the said allegations over 10 months ago.

“The Minister has, by her own admission, decided to dust it up now that there is so much dust over the decision of Dr Gwarzo to perform what he was appointed to do, that is sanitizing the capital market and ensuring that public companies are run well, thereby instilling investors’ confidence,” the coordinator of the initiative, Barrister Nnodu Okeke said.

While agreeing with the House to carry out the investigation, the initiative said shareholders have been vociferous in their call on SEC to look into the rot in Oando Plc and that Gwarzo acted as a good regulator by ordering for a forensic audit on the oil company.

They said the Oando management was for reasons best known to it not comfortable with the forensic audit, saying “they have done all they could find in the books to stop the audit, including going to court, and failed.”