By Dipo Olowookere
Despite promising to commence the much-awaited forensic audit of Oando Plc, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is yet to begin the exercise.
This is already making investors in the capital market, especially shareholders of the energy company to question what was causing the delay.
Yesterday, some shareholders of the firm under the aegis of Proactive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN) and Trusted Shareholders’ Association (TSA) staged a protest in Abuja, asking the apex capital market regulator to immediately kick off the audit.
The aggrieved investors called for the immediate suspension of the management of Oando so as to allow an unhindered process.
On October 18, 2017 SEC ordered a forensic audit of Oando after a panel it set up found Oando guilty of allegations made in petitions filed by two shareholders of the firms, Mr Dahiru Mangal and Ansbury Incorporated.
However, the forensic audit was challenged by Oando at a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and the court told Oando to take the matter to the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST), a special court established to entertain capital market disputes.
While the matter was on, Mr Mounir Gwarzo was suspended as the Director General of SEC in November by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.
Mr Gwarzo alleged that he was removed from the office because he refused to stop the forensic audit, a claim the Minister refuted.
The former DG was later replaced by Mr Abdul Zubair, who promised that the audit would go on as planned.
However, months after he assumed office, the forensic audit was yet to commence and shareholders of Oando are already losing their patience.
During Wednesday’s demonstration in Abuja, the investors said SEC must start the exercise so as to protect the image of the nation’s capital market.
“We cannot allow regulatory infractions to go unpunished; we cannot allow financial mismanagement to go scot-free.
“We can’t understand now why SEC, with the active connivance of the Minister of Finance, are trying to truncate the process.
“They keep on telling us that the forensic audit is still ongoing, that they still agree with it but nothing is happening. Nothing tangible has been followed up, there is nothing taking place,” Mr Mukhtar Mukhtar, Chairman of the TSA said.
He said it was time for the management of Oando Plc to go because they had spent nearly two decades in office.
He also claimed the management had appropriated some of the company’s subsidiaries, both upstream and downstream for themselves and their cronies at prices based on their estimations.
On his part, National Coordinator of PSAN, Mr Oderinde Taiwo, said Oando was “exposed to both local and foreign loans worth about N779 billion on which an interest of N15 billion was paid”.
According to him, it was “a show of the level of recklessness of the organisation.”
“We bought the last right issue they did at N98 and the right issue listed before the suspension stood at N4.95.
“When you see such a change you know that there are a lot of problems. Many of the shareholders have died with Oando doing all these things, they have killed some people directly or indirectly.
“We have come to the National Assembly because we discovered that the SEC under the present acting director general has been compromised. The man does not act confidently again, they are not forthcoming, they are just dodging.
“Let the CEO of Oando and his management team be suspended so the forensic audit can go unhindered, you can’t do a forensic audit without suspending the management of the company,” he said.
