In order to sustain the confidence of investors and safeguard the integrity of the Nigerian capital market, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun on Tuesday at the investigative hearing organized by the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions insisted that the suspension of the Director-General of Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Munir Gwarzo, remained valid.
The Finance Minister during yesterday’s hearing said Gwarzo violated public service rules by being a Director of a private company while still in office as the DG of the Commission and was suspended in accordance with the Public Service Rules (PSRs) 03405 and 03406.
Mrs. Adeosun who during the hearing explained that Gwarzo’s suspension was to make way for an uninterrupted investigation into several allegations of financial impropriety levied against the DG, she hinted that the Investment and Security Act empowers the minister to act in absence of the board.
One of the offences Gwarzo committed according to the Finance Minister was that he paid himself the sum N104 million as severance package after he was promoted from the position of a Director to been the Director General of the same commission, an act contravening the civil service standing rule that severance benefit could only be paid to an employee who had concluded his or her service or had being completely disengaged from service.
Reacting to the suspension Gwarzo who challenged the powers of the minister to suspend him, claimed that he was being hunted for investigating Oando and Oasis Insurance companies.
Meanwhile the embattled DG disclosed that the level of interference in the activities of the commission by the minister had never been recorded in the history of the organization said he had resigned as director of the private company since 2012, adding that proper documentation of his resignation was the responsibility of the company’s secretary.
