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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Herman Hembe and Arunma Oteh



Chairman House committee on capital market steps down

Chairman, House of Representatives committee on Capital Market and other Financial Institution, Herman Hembe has stepped down as the chairman of the committee probing the activities of the Nigeria Stock Exchange and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

This is following allegations by the Director-general of SEC, Oteh Arunma that Hembe demanded a bribe of N39 million from SEC for the ongoing probe.

She also accused Hembe of demanding N5million from the commission to enable him travel to the Dominican Republic to attend an Emerging market conference without embarking on the journey.

Hembe in an address to the House plenary on Tuesday stated that ” I demanded and took no bribe but rather fought hard to resist any such tempataion.”

The lawmaker therefore tendered his resignation as the head of the committee but affirmed that he will head to the court to clear his name “that has been marred” he said.

The House has set up an ad-hoc committee headed by Ibrahim El-Suid from Taraba state to continue with the probe.

The new committee has 21 days to conclude the probe.

The House also mandated its Ethics committee to probe the allegation while the public hearing continues.

The SEC DG on Thursday made the accusations in response to the claims by the Committee that she has mismanaged the affairs of the commission and the committee was out to tarnish her intergrity.

She questioned the credibility of the Chairman of the committee in conducting the probe, considering her allegations.

In his response, Mr Hembe noted all the allegations listed by the SEC and subjected himself and the committee to another probe which he ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to take up.

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