[size=18pt]Nigeria’s SEC Probes Allegations Against Billionaire Dangote [/size]

By Vincent Nwanma

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission said it is investigating allegations of share price manipulation made by an oil-marketing company against a domestic brokerage and entities owned by a Nigerian billionaire.

African Petroleum Plc, or AP, alleges that Nova Finance and Securities Ltd. and companies owned by Alhaji Aliko Dangote traded its shares among themselves at a discount over the past eight weeks in order to reduce the stock’s price. Nigerian Stock Exchange rules dictate that a minimum of 50,000 shares must be traded before a price can change.

The alleged manipulation may be related to “personal feuds” between Dangote and Femi Otedola, chief executive officer of African Petroleum, AP said in a two-page advertisement published today in ThisDay, a Lagos-based newspaper.

Otedola, 42, is ranked 601st on the latest Forbes list of billionaires with a net worth of $1.2 billion. The 51-year-old Dangote places 261st with a net worth of $2.5 billion.

A voice message on the mobile phone of Dangote’s spokesman, Joseph Okonma, said the subscriber was barred from receiving calls. Contacted late yesterday, Okonma said he couldn’t comment on the allegations. Calls to Nova’s office in Lagos didn’t connect when Bloomberg News tried to reach the firm several times today.

African Petroleum shares have fallen every day since Feb. 11 and have lost 82 percent of their value since the beginning of last month, according to Bloomberg data. The stock closed at 48.91 naira yesterday.

Securities Commission Probe

The securities commission, which regulates the industry, has established a committee to probe the allegations, spokesman Lanre Oloye said in a phone interview today from Lagos, the commercial capital.

“The commission is prepared to carry out its mandate to protect the integrity of the securities market in Nigeria from all abuses, including insider dealing,” Oloye said.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange also said it had commenced a “scientific and technical investigation” into the allegations.

“The Exchange will thoroughly investigate the matter and make its findings and recommendations public in due course,” it said in an e-mailed statement today.


To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 25, 2009 10:00 EDT

Source: Bloomberg.com

Kai this fight don dey get messy day by day. No be Femi first to start to dey buy Dangote sugar. Whatever we reap we shall so. This 2 men have enjoyed the best days in the OBJ era and thier greed might just be what will destroy them if they dont reconcile and retrace their steps.

let them continue fighting,the more they undercut each other,the better for the average nigerian, wonder what forbes was thinking by adding them,they should have done an indepht investigation using a non partisan nigerian financial investigator who will not only tell them what dangote and otedola are really like, in financial and business deals and manipulations but how these figures were not a true reflection of their worth,

Apparently, Forbes' list does not consider mode (legal or illegal) of wealth acquisition. For instance, Joaquin Guzman Loera, a Mexican drug trafficker, is #701 on Forbes' list.

See: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Joaquin-Guzman-Loera_FS0Y.html

RichyBlacK:

Apparently, Forbes' list does not consider mode (legal or illegal) of wealth acquisition. For instance, Joaquin Guzman Loera, a Mexican drug trafficker, is #701 on Forbes' list.

See: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/10/billionaires-2009-richest-people_Joaquin-Guzman-Loera_FS0Y.html

no wonder,now we r getting somewhere ibb is a good candidate then,after all he s better than a drug dealer