By Our Correspondent

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday announced it will today Wednesday May 15 2013 inaugurate its nine (9) member newly reconstituted Administrative Proceedings Committee (APC).

This was contained in a Press Statement from Yakubu Olaleye, Head, Media of Nigeria’s SEC and made available to InvestAdvocate in Lagos Nigeria.

“In line with its vision of instilling a strong culture of integrity in the Nigerian capital market, the Board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market, is poised to inaugurate its reconstituted Administrative Proceedings Committee, SEC APC” the Statement said.

According to SEC, Arunma Oteh, its Director General (DG) will chair the new look SEC APC.

SEC said the other members of the APC include two SEC Executive Commissioners and two non Executive Commissioners. “The other three members are drawn strategically from the judiciary, academia and the global market place” the Commission said.

The three drawn members are Hon. Justice Ibrahim Umar (Rtd.), a former Chief Judge of Kebbi State is a member, Prof. B. Esosa Bob – Osaze, a Professor of Finance and capital markets who is the current Dean of Post – Graduate Studies at the University of Benin and Dr. Ike Michaels Odenigwe, a capital market expert, with his rich reserve of knowledge garnered in sophisticated North American markets, which also spans Pension Fund Administration, Alternative Investment Asset Management and Allocation, Financial and Investment Advisory, etc.

The APC is a vital leg of the SEC’s market enforcement machinery.  It is a quasi – judicial body established pursuant to the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007, Sections 310 and 303(5) as a mechanism for dispute resolution and for ensuring fair hearing for all parties (capital market operators and other institutions) involved in disputes arising from capital market transactions.

The Statement further affirmed the APC’s role is predominantly fact finding. It conducts inquiries into the substance of alleged violations of securities law. It therefore acts in the public interest, having regard to the protection of investors, and the maintenance of a fair and orderly market. To this end, the APC is empowered by the ISA 2007 to impose sanctions where infractions of the securities law and the Rules and Regulations derived therefrom (by the SEC) are established.

According to ISA 2007, the APC is guided by rules of procedure which are contained in Schedule VIII of the SEC Rules and Regulations. Its decisions are submitted to the SEC’s Board for review and confirmation not later than 30 days from the date the decision was taken.

Across the years, the SEC APC had resolved hundreds of cases between investors and market operators, disputes between operators, instances of violation of the rules governing conduct in the market by participants, and so on. It had therefore played a central in maintaining transparent and orderly Nigerian capital market overtime.

SEC said the inauguration which will take place in the SEC’s corporate headquarters is in line with the pledge made to the market by Dr. Suleyman Ndanusa, Chairman of the SEC’s Board of Directors, during the Board’s inauguration earlier in the year “ … to elevate the culture of integrity in the market through a strict regime of rule enforcement”.