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Monday, 09 August 2010 00:00 By Femi Adekoya
THE Independent Shareholders Association of Nigerian (ISAN) has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to address the ongoing crisis in the nation’s capital market with caution in order to avoid another confidence crisis in the market citing the CBN intervention in the banking industry as an example.
In a news statement made available to The Guardian, the association said that SEC’s punitive regulation and actions on the ongoing court rulings over the Presidency of the NSE has lowered the confidence level of the nation’s capital market to an abysmal level and has consequently clearly breached the confidence of investors and the nation’s avowed rule of law by arriving at a hurried conclusion without investigating all allegations and the substance of it.
The association further noted that the sacking of council members of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was a calculated attempt by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to cover up her inept regulatory inadequacies.
“The Commission has proven to the investing public particularly, some discerning shareholder groupings, that investor’s protection were calibrated and measured. We believe that the punitive massive sack was done to provide soft landing for the estranged member of the council in defiance to the order of a court of competent jurisdiction,†it added.
The association argued that in sacking the Exchange’s council members, SEC was only taking a cue from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“SEC like the other members of the nation’s financial industry has been cut by the Sanusi Lamido Sanusi bug. Officials are now relieved of their appointment without giving them appropriate opportunity to defend themselves. As a group, we restated that the removal of the council members would not stop ISAN court action but has reinvigorated the association’s stand to pursue to its logical conclusion all court cases instituted by its members,†ISAN said.
The shareholders’ group reminded investors that the protection of their investments and the ability to ensure sustainable wealth creation depended on their proactive understanding and defence instead of leaving it to inept regulators.
Source:The Guardian
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