Nigeria’s bourse regulator has sacked the head of the country’s troubled stock exchange after accusations of financial mismanagement and poor oversight, a spokesman said on Thursday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that “given the gravity of the allegations around financial mismanagement of the exchange, the commission has also directed … an independent investigation”.
Its move comes after the regulator said last week that it planned to haul 260 organisations and individuals before a tribunal for alleged price fixing, share price manipulation, fraud and insider trading.
Trade at the exchange halted before midday because of what dealers called a technical breakdown. According to dealers, trading had opened and taken place for about an hour in the morning.
Witnesses said journalists had not been allowed inside early in the day, but reporters were later given access, including an AFP journalist.
A spokesman for the regulator said Thursday that the director general of sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest exchange, along with its president and a number of members of its council, were being removed.
Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the director general, was to be immediately removed from her post, SEC spokesman Lanre Oloyi said.
Aliko Dangote, the exchange president ranked by Forbes as one of the richest men in Africa, will be suspended along with other council members while a related court case is pending, the SEC statement said.
The SEC alleged that Dangote and other council members were elected in defiance of a court order.
Shareholders in oil firm African Petroleum challenged the appointment of Dangote after allegations of share manipulation, though the SEC has cleared him of the accusations.
A court ruled earlier this year that Dangote should be removed from the post, but he had pledged to appeal. A spokesman for one of Dangote’s companies declined to comment on Thursday, citing the pending court case.
The SEC statement said interim management would be appointed to run the exchange before the start of trade on Thursday, but gave no further details.
An exchange source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Emmanuel Ikazoboh, former CEO for accounting firm Deloitte’s West and Central Africa branch, had been named as interim administrator.
Local media also reported Ikazoboh had been appointed.
A senior exchange official contacted by AFP alleged that Onyiuke was being unfairly targeted amid disagreements over whether she would retire this year.
“The DG (director-general) was being victimised,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The stock market lost 70 percent of its value in 2008-2009 as a result of the global recession and a major banking crisis in Nigeria, the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter and Africa’s most populous nation.
Can someone probe the fake certificates of Farooq Oreagba of NSE Consult please? it is an embarrassment we cannot hide anymore. He was due for a sack and was saved by the SEC action and now is reported to have applied for the DG/CEO job at the NSE; what a load of rubbish…how low can we sink as a professional institution where we cannot verify the certificate of a staff properly? He has changed the documents in his file since the take over by SEC and this must be thoroughly investigated.