The embattled Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market, Hon. Herman Hembe, Tuesday alleged that it was the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that offered to bribe his committee with N30 million.

The SEC Director-General, Ms Arunma Oteh, had alleged last week that she was being intimidated by Hembe because she refused to accede to requests for N39 million and N5 million “bribes” by the committee to “support” the public hearing into the crisis in the capital market.

But Hembe, while offering to step down as chairman of the probe committee Tuesday, alleged that the true story was the other way round.

THISDAY is in possession of copies of SEC’s internal memoranda which tend to suggest that it was the commission that initiated the move to “support” the House Committee with N30 million “for the success of the public hearing”.

But questions are also being asked as to how SEC arrived at figures for live coverage (N26,203,800) and secretariat needs (N4,215,000) in the internal memo, suggesting that the House committee might indeed have approached the commission for financial support based on its budget for the public hearing.

Hembe’s offer to step aside was accepted while the entire members of the committee were eased out.

Consequently, the House set up an eight-man ad hoc committee to begin the process of conducting the probe afresh.

The new committee has 21 days to complete its assignment.
The allegations levelled against Hembe and members of the House Committee on Capital Market have been referred to the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges.

The allegations are to be investigated and a report of its findings is expected to be submitted in two weeks.

Hembe initiated the process of his withdrawal from the probe when, at the commencement of plenary, he raised a point of order and sought the leave of the House to offer personal explanations on the scandal rocking his committee.

He explained that the allegations were false and claimed that he neither demanded nor took bribes but fought hard and rebuffed inappropriate overtures to influence the committee in the course of its assignment.

He recalled the incident of last Thursday and said the confusion arose "when the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Ms Arunma Oteh) rather than answering questions on serious matters put to her chose to proceed on a voyage of false allegations and branded the entire committee a kangaroo court”.

"I stand before you this morning to reaffirm my innocence regarding the allegations made against me by the Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission. I want it to be on record that I demanded no bribes and took no bribes but rather I fought hard and rebuffed efforts to be inappropriately influenced," he said.

In a bid to buttress his case, the lawmaker brandished what he called three internal memoranda of the SEC in which the management of the regulatory agency sought to assist the House Committee with some funds to enable it conduct the now botched public hearing.

In one of the memoranda dated March 1, 2012, one Hassan Mamman, an official of SEC, wrote to the DG initiating the process of assisting the committee.

The letter read in part: "In view of the Commission's role as the apex regulator of the Nigerian Capital Market and in consideration of the existing cordial relationship cultivated over the years between it and the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market, we find it appropriate for the management to assist the Committee by co-sponsoring this three-week long event. If the above suggestion is acceptable to management, the committee may be approached on your directives, to find out the possible areas for the support."

A second memorandum dated March 9, 2012 which was also addressed to the DG of SEC showed that the agency narrowed down the support to two items namely, N24,203,800 for the live coverage and N2,215,000 for sundry secretariat needs of the public hearing.

However, a third memorandum conveying extracts of the minutes of the 63rd meeting of the Board of the SEC held on Monday, March 12, 2012 showed that "after due deliberations, the board approved a maximum of N30 million as donation by the Commission to the House Committee on Capital Market to enable it undertake the public hearing”.

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