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The
management of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday suspended
Binos Yaroe, general manager, Listing and Quotation Department.

He
was placed on indefinite suspension over what was described as
“indiscipline act”. However, no further explanation was given as to the
nature of the indiscipline.

Mr. Yaroe, who was suspended on Tuesday, has been asked to stay off work from the following day (yesterday) till further notice.

Wole
Tokede, the NSE’s spokesperson, confirmed the suspension and said the
sanction was “an internal discipline of the Exchange” measured against
the offender.

The
development has been generating various comments from some market
operators. A stockbroker, who spoke to NEXT on the condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said he believed
that Mr. Yaroe’s suspension was not unconnected with plans by the
interim administration of the NSE to “further clear away all the old
members of staff to give Oscar Onyema, the chief executive officer
designate, a fresh start.”

An
official of the NSE, who also pleaded anonymity, said, “His (Mr.
Yaroe’s) suspension was the outcome of the Exchange’s effort to
practice what it preaches on enforcement of good corporate governance.”

However,
Mr. Tokede said, “I know that he (Mr. Yaroe) has been suspended but I
don’t know whether definite or it has a time dimension,” adding that
the suspension was “an internal discipline of the Exchange, as it does
not have anything to do with the insinuation that they (the NSE) are
cleaning the road for the incoming chief executive officer.”

Emmanuel
Ikazoboh, the interim head of the NSE, had sacked 95 staff of the
Exchange few weeks after he assumed office, following the sack of Ndi
Okereke-Onyiuke last August on allegations of financial mismanagement.

Also,
while some of the senior staff with insider knowledge of the system had
to resign because of pressure from some quarters, Mr. Yaroe, one of
those supposedly pencilled down to head the Exchange if Mrs.
Okereke-Onyiuke had retired, remained in the market until his
suspension.

Some
market watchers said that the report on the investigation of the
affairs of the NSE under the leadership of its former director general,
Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke, may indict some of its general managers,
including Mr. Yaroe.

NEXT
had reported that the yet-to-be officially released forensic report
showed that in 2008, the NSE expended a total of N186 million in
purchases of Rolex watches for long serving employees.

In
the mean time, the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, has adjourned judgment
till April 4, on the suit filed by Mrs. Okereke-Onyiuke, challenging
her sack as the director general of the NSE.