Following several interventions of both northern and southern monarchs in the financial misappropriation allegation levied against the management of Oando Plc by some stakeholders, some investors of the oil firm have warned the monarchs to keep away and allow transparent investigations.
The Coordinator, Oando Shareholders Solidarity Group, Mr. Clement Ebitimi, described the peace accord brokered with one of the major shareholders of the firm, Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, and some top management staff of Oando by monarchs as a good one but stressed that such meeting should not be used to distort the on-going investigations.
He explained that the issue of the forensic audit “bothers on financial mismanagement, insider dealings, abuse of corporate governance and infractions with regard to the Investment and Securities Act 2007 and not about the major shareholders of the company.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Forensic Audit of Oando ordered by Securities Exchange Commission is not about Mangal. The audit is about series of infractions of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007 uncovered in the company by a preliminary investigation ordered by SEC.
“SEC’s preliminary findings established serious concern to the existence of corporate governance; especially the alleged gross abuse of corporate governance.
“The alleged infractions include breach of the SEC Code of Corporate Governance; Breach of ISA 2007 on Disposal of Oando Exploration & Production Limited by Oando Plc 2013; Breach of ISA 2007: Misstatements in the 2013 and 2014 Audited financial statement of Oando Plc arising from the OEPL transaction, and breach of ISA on misleading information contained in Oando Plc’s 2014 Rights Issue Circular, among others, and we are waiting for results of the regulator’s findings,” he said.
According to him, the SEC’s preliminary investigation also unearthed suspected insider dealing, in which the commission observed that certain persons classified as insiders within the provisions of Section 315 of the ISA 2007 and who were in possession of confidential price sensitive information not generally available to the public, had between January and October 2015, traded on Oando Plc shares prior to the release of the company’s 2014 Financial Statement, where the company reported a loss of N183 billion.
Another shareholder of the company, Mr. Taiwo Ajayi, also warned that the allegations against the company are weighty and urged no big personality to intervene adding that they should allow justice to prevail.
“The House of Representatives has issued a clear directive to SEC to investigate these infractions. The Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in exonerating herself from attempts to stall the forensic audit, has also stated that the Oando management has a case to answer with regards to infractions of the ISA 2007, so we don’t want any distractive interventions.
“We call on all monarch not to interfere in the legitimate process of instilling sanity in Oando and in the capital market. When severe disciplinary measures were meted against some bank Chief Executives in the banking industry, no one interfered.
“SEC’s primary role as the apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market is to regulate market participants and protect the investing public. This must not be compromised by any means. Shareholders deserve to know the true state of affairs of their company. Investors are watching; the world is watching and we will not allow this matter to rest until the right thing is done,”
he added.
