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President
Goodluck Jonathan has pledged his support to the ongoing effort by the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to cleanse the Nigerian
capital market. In his posting on Facebook, the social networking site,
he said he will give political cover to the commission in taking any
necessary measure backed by law to cleanse the stock market.

“I also extend that
same promise to all heads of Federal Government agencies and bodies in
charge of maintaining or… enforcing Law and Order be it in the civil
population, the military/paramilitary, anti corruption bodies or the
core civil service,” he said in his Facebook wall posting on Tuesday.
“I want you all to know that there will not be any negative
consequences to you for doing your job in accordance with the laws of
our land.” The comment attracted 1, 049 remarks while 158,587 people
followed the posting.

Social justice

According to the
president, there must be social justice without which there will be no
level playing field for the citizens to operate. “I personally do not
see the justice in sentencing to prison a man who steals because he is
hungry while the man who causes the hunger by misappropriating funds
meant to ease society’s burden is treated with kids gloves,” the
president stated. SEC last week sacked the director general of the
Nigerian Stock exchange, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, and president of its
council, Aliko Dangote on grounds of infighting, lack of corporate
governance and alleged fraud and bankruptcy. The commission
subsequently appointed an interim management led by Emmanuel Ikhazoboh,
the immediate past chairman of Akintola Williams Delloite, a firm of
chartered accountants.

The commission DG,
Arunma Oteh, said it has commenced investigations into the activities
of the stock exchange over allegations of financial irregularities in
the exchange. “The allegations purport that the exchange is insolvent
and may soon face bankruptcy and it will not be able to meet its
financial obligations,” she said.

Unethical practices

Also, on Tuesday,
Ms Oteh told the House of Representatives Committee on capital market
that about 260 persons and organizations are to face charges over the
crisis in Nigeria’s capital market, in continuation of its resolve to
purge the sector of unethical practices. She acknowledged the
widespread allegations of increasing insider dealings, share price
manipulations, of weakness in enforcement of excessive risk taking in
the market environment, which informed the plan to possibly bring
charges against those listed.

She said the intervention was to save the fragile capital market
that has already been hit by allegations of various malpractices,
including insider trading and share prices manipulation. “Like you
know, our call and mandate is to protect public interest and to protect
the investor, particularly what I will consider the voiceless masses of
people,” she said.