Memo on N30m Board approval stolen at night - SEC

               
Chiawo Nwankwo and John Ameh

 
The embattled Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market, Mr. Herma Hembe, has been asked to explain how he got a memo he presented to the House in plenary on Tuesday. The memo shows that the Board of the Security and Exchange Commission approved N30m for a now controversial public hearing.

Hembe had told the House that the SEC board acted based on a memo that the Director-General of SEC, Ms Aruma Oteh, originated. He claimed that SEC on its own decided to finance the public hearing.

But SEC has described his claim as blatant falsehood; and said that the document was stolen in the dead of the night.

The Communication Adviser to Oteh, Mr. Obi Adindu, told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview that the photocopy of the invoice Hembe displayed bore a staple mark, which showed that a document was detached from the invoice.

According to him, the detached document is the paper containing the House Committee's request.

He said that the paper contained a list of items on which the committee would spend the solicited funds.

He said, "It was on the basis of that document that the DG of SEC wrote the said memo to the board seeking its approval.

"If you have the invoice, you will see staple marks on the left hand of the document. What was it that was detached? It was the one he felt not comfortable to display.

"It was a two-page long list of articles required for the public hearing. It was on the basis of the two-page lengthy list for the public hearing that the memo (Oteh's) was composed.

"The memo was stolen in the dead of the night. They are very gifted at violating the Freedom of Information Act. Their modus operandi (method of obtaining the memo) shows their intentions.

"That is the new standard that Hembe has brought to legislative public hearing."

On why the N30m was not ultimately given to the committee after it had been approved by the board, SEC explained that when the House Committee's agent came requesting N5m cash, "SEC began to smell a rat."

On the possible connivance with some members of its staff to leak the invoice or memo to the House, Oteh's communication adviser said investigation was going on to fish out those responsible.
He also noted that SEC had been interfacing with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on the bribery allegation.

But responding to the allegation that the documents which Hembe displayed were stolen, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Victor Ogene, said that the House had made its position known by the decision it had taken on the matter.
"The issue has already gone before the EFCC and the ICPC. 

Whatever SEC has to say should be sent to the anti-graft agencies.
"Both parties (Hembe and Oteh) should go to the EFCC and the ICPC to make whatever case they have."