31st May, 2019
Operators on the nation bourse on Friday said that suspension of two directors of Oando Plc from public companies for five years would bring sanity to the capital market.
They disclosed this in Lagos in reaction to the outcome of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) forensic audit of Oando Plc.
SEC on Friday barred Mr Wale Tinubu, the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, and Mr Omamofe Boyo, the Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, from being directors of a public company for five years.
The commission conveyed the decision in a statement signed by Mrs Efe Ebelo, its Head of Corporate Communications,
SEC in March 2018 announced the commencement of audit of Oando Plc’s account, NAN reports.
It said it had appointed Deloitte Nigeria to proceed with the forensic audit.
The commission in the statement also directed resignation of the affected board members, and called on the company to convene an extraordinary general meeting on or before July 1, to appoint new directors.
Commenting on the development, Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., said that the suspension would send a signal to other managing directors and executives in the market.
Omordion said that the outcome of the forensic audit showed that SEC could bite and not only bark.
He said that the investing public had been calling for change in the company’s management for a long time.
According to Omordion, there will be sanity in the company when the new management takes over in July.
“Other companies and their directors will sit up, seeing how Oando management and its directors ended up.
“SEC decision will further boost corporate governance and transparency in quoted companies and increase investors’ confidence,” Omordion told NAN.
Malam Shehu Mikail, National President, Constance Shareholders Association of Nigeria, also expressed satisfaction at the commission’s decision.
Mikali said that the ban would instill transparency and corporate governance in the nation’s capital market.
The shareholder activist said that the outcome showed that nobody was above the law in the market.
He said that some companies had collapsed due to lack of transparency and corporate governance.