WHEN BRAZEN AND BLIND PURSUIT OF VENDETTA/ ORCHESTRATED FALSEHOOD GET CARRIED TOO FAR
Re: The House Of Representatives Probe On Capital Market

We have watched with disdain and utter disbelief the macabre dance of shame coming from the lower arm of the National Assembly, specifically the House of Representatives in the past few weeks. In brazen attempts to cover their own and openly condone graft and corruption, the lower Legislative chamber has been moving from one summersault to the other. The thought of ignoring the decadence going on there has been on, but the greater thought of salvaging our fledgling democracy from total collapse, did take the better part of our reasoning. We cannot continue to feign amnesia and watch these fellows squander our common patrimony and goodwill in a continuous and sinister celebration of shamelessness, pettiness and callousness, all under the guise of performing their Legislative oversight functions.
Nigerians and indeed the global community are regaled daily with the supposed probes and inquests couched under spurious oversight functions, which later turn out to be self-seeking and avenues for corrupt self-enrichment and aggrandizement. Mind bugging allegations, most often concocted, but made to look real, are made against public officials in attempts to compromise and bring them to be players in the high-tech game of corruption. Official blackmail and intimidations are most often employed as arm-twisting strategies, to coerce the said officials into playing ball. Most often than not they succeed in covering up these misdeeds and come out as heroes of anti-corruption and experts in deepening democracy in the country. Only on few occasions have their underbelly been exposed either immediately after they pick their slush funds (which is fast becoming as is so obvious now, their major reasons for the probes); or just as they were getting set to collect them. Check out the of the records: NDUDI ELUMULU Power Probe Committee, LAWAN FAROUK/OTEDOLA gate, of the Oil Subsidy Probe and now the HAMAN HEMBE/ARUNMA OTEH face of the Capital Market Probe, the outcome gets messier as the day goes by. But why will the Lower House come up with unproveable findings and outright falsities, as in the instant case. Must vendetta be taken to this ridiculous and unintelligent level? How come that the House suddenly found out that Oteh who worked at Centre Point Investment and Securities Limited, from 1987, and left in 1992, to the African Development Bank (AfDB), is not qualified, because according to them, she does not have 15 years experience in capital market?Why is it coming after Oteh spilled the beans on one of their own, Haman Hembe? How come the Lower House suddenly started claiming superiority and have even gone ahead to over-rule - the Senate- who thoroughly screened, cleared and declared Oteh a proper and fit person to hold the office of the Director-General of SEC? Are they now saying that the Senate goofed or did not do a thorough job after-all? Many questions, and no answers.

A brief profile of Arumma Oteh to at least controvert the House will suffice:
Arunma Onyejiuwa Oteh who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a 1984 first class honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Nigeria, has been Director General at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Inc. since December 2009. She served as the Vice President of Corporate Management & Corporate Services of African Development Bank (AfDB) since March 2, 2006. She has over 16 years of experience in the Capital Market. She served as Director of Treasury Department at ADB until March 2, 2006. She was Bank Group Treasurer, and she has also held positions in treasury and lending since she joined the AfDB in 1992. She worked in corporate finance, consulting, teaching and research. Ms. Oteh served as the ADB Group's Treasurer for five years from 2001 to 2006, with overall responsibility for its fund raising and investments in major international capital markets. She also worked variously in ADB as Division Manager Investments and Trading Room from 1997 to 2001, as well as Senior Investment Officer/Senior Capital Markets Officer from 1993 to 1997. She worked for various institutions including the Harvard Institute for International Development and Centre Point Investments Limited of Nigeria in corporate finance, consulting, teaching and research, before joining the African Development Bank (ADB) in 1992. She serves as a Member of Advisory Board at Africa investor Ltd. When the former SEC Director General, Musa Al-Faki resigned in April 2009, amid criticism of the SEC role in a share-manipulation scandal involving African Petroleum stock. She was nominated Director-General and Executive Commissioner (Legal & Compliance) of the Securities & Exchange Commission by President Umaru Yar'Adua in July 2009, subject to Senate confirmation. Arunma Oteh became Director General of the SEC in January 2010.

In a June 2010 interview with the BBC, Oteh listed "wash sales, market rigging, pumping and dumping shares" as some of the abuses in Nigeria's capital market. She said the SEC expected to charge about 200 individuals and entities in civil or criminal cases. She faced resistance from the powerful Nigerian rent-seeking elite, but expressed confidence due to the backing she had received from President Goodluck Jonathan. In August 2010 Oteh dismissed Okereke-Onyiuke from the stock exchange.

This apparently marked the beginning of her problem, with the House of Representatives, because the Deputy Speaker is a nephew of the dismissed former DG of Stock Exchange. It is obvious that this contrived report is brazen vendetta and orchestrated falsehood at its ugly and ferocious level. The House appears to be riding on a Highway to Nowhere (ala Late Jim Reeves), in this vendetta game, and they are carrying on in senseless but determined defiance of the principles of equity and fair-play
Nigerians and indeed men and women of goodwill across the globe, should rise up in defence of the truth, and to condemn what at best could be described as childish display of hate. Before this misnomer of the House dictating for the Presidency who to appoint and dismiss, becomes the norm, the President and all the agencies of the Executive are urged to discountenance the report for what it is - A BUNDLE OF TRASH.

Ekekwe John Egu