The SEC boss has her qualifications for the job under scrutiny
Arunma Oteh, the Director General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose bribery allegation against lawmakers forced the suspension of the House of Representatives capital market investigation, drew fresh round of fire at a resumed hearing Wednesday, when a key operator asked for her sack.
Speaking on behalf of provider of funds for the capital market, Boniface Okezie blamed the government for contributing to the collapse of the market by appointing an “unqualified” Oteh, to head the commission.
Okezie said the SEC’s boss lacked the requisite experience and qualification stated in the federal act setting up the regulatory commission.
“Government is part of the problem of the meltdown because it should have appointed someone who has knowledge and experience of the capital market to head it,” he said. “The problem is that we make laws and we violate them.”
“The law clearly states that the director general of the Security and Exchange Commission must be a chartered stockbroker and have 15 years experience as a stockbroker. Other markets have been through this kind of experience before and it was the experience of the head that brought them out of the mess.
If we had followed that law we would have been getting out of the problem today because if the person heading SEC had the knowledge of how the market works, she would have been in a proper position to advise the CBN that the step it was taking on the nationalization of banks was wrong.”
Oteh’s qualifications were first called to question at the initial hearing headed by Herman Hembe, whom she accused of soliciting bribes from the commission.
In what turned out to be one of the most controversial public hearing so of the House, Hembe was accused of attacking Oteh personally instead of the troubles of the capital market which was meant to be the basis if the investigation.
Hembe later accused Oteh of attempting to bribe him with N30 million, only after the SEC boss had said the lawmakers sought N44 million kickback from the commission.
