LAGOS: Nigeria’s bourse regulator has sacked the head of the country’s troubled stock exchange after accusations of financial mismanagement and poor oversight, a spokesman said on Thursday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that "given the gravity of the allegations around financial mismanagement of the exchange, the commission has also directed … an independent investigation".
Its move comes after the regulator said last week that it planned to haul 260 organisations and individuals before a tribunal for alleged price fixing, share price manipulation, fraud and insider trading.
A spokesman for the regulator said Thursday that the director general of sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest exchange, along with its president and a number of members of its council, were being removed.
Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the director general, was to be immediately removed from her post, spokesman Lanre Oloyi said.
Aliko Dangote, the exchange president ranked by Forbes as one of the richest men in Africa, will be suspended along with other council members while a related court case is pending, an SEC statement said.
The SEC alleged that Dangote and other council members were elected in defiance of a court order.
Shareholders in oil firm African Petroleum challenged the appointment of Dangote after allegations of share manipulation, though the SEC has cleared him of the accusations.
A court ruled earlier this year that Dangote should be removed from the post, but he had pledged to appeal. A spokesman for one of Dangote’s companies declined to comment on Thursday, citing the pending court case.
The SEC statement said an interim management team would be appointed to run the exchange before the start of trade on Thursday, but gave no further details.
A senior exchange official contacted by AFP alleged that Onyiuke was being unfairly targeted amid disagreements over whether she would retire this year.
"The DG (director-general) was being victimized," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The stock market lost 70 percent of its value in 2008-2009 as a result of the global recession and a major banking crisis in Nigeria, the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter.
