NASS Reconciles Dangote, Otedola
By Otei Oham and Sule Lazarus, Abuja.

Warring business moguls, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola showed their disdain for each other before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, as they snubbed themselves before they were called to order.

Locked in a bitter war over allegation of manipulation in the sales of AP shares by Nova Finance, it took the intervention of Chairman of the Committee on Capital Market, Aliyu Wadada for them to exchange greetings.

Wadada urged them to see the nation above their interests and misunderstandings.

Speaker Dimeji Bankole, who got wind of the cold reception, had to pay a brief visit to the venue of the public hearing where he had a brief chat with Otedola and Dangote.

Otedola, who arrived earlier shunned entreaties and pleas to reciprocate greetings from Dangote, until Wadada, who had been watching them, invited the two businessmen to the front where he asked them to exchange greetings. They did grudgingly.

"The feud between Dangote and Otedola has socio-economic implications on the nation. We the lawmakers and the industrialists are all working together for the interest of the country, and it should be uppermost in our dealings. We will appreciate if you embrace yourselves and leave whatever concerns you have behind," he told the duo.

In his testimonies, Otedola denied withdrawing his petition and that he was ready to abide with the verdict of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the interest of the nation's economy.

He admitted that the dispute between him and his foe was telling on the economy, and said there was need to settle the matter by the stakeholders.

Dangote, in his presentation disclosed that the share price index was not static, and added that banks whose investments on shares worth about N60 billion annually sometimes experience a drop in the price of shares as low as N8,000, but which has rise to about N28.00 within three months.

"I want to suggest that members of share holders association be given the opportunity to make presentation since they are major stake holders in the capital market to give fair hearing in the entire transactions," he told the Committee.

President of Share holders Association of Nigeria, Sony Nwosu had complained that some of its members died in the course of pursuing justice in various courts to recover their investments which never came until their sudden death.

Wadada pleaded for understanding of the desire of the Committee to resolve the matter, reminding the stakeholders that both the report of SEC and NSE are not bidding on the House.

According to him, the report at the committee's disposal showed that two companies have been sanctioned by the two regulatory institutions on their role in the share price index.

"The country should be placed first in all that we do in the public service and the private sector if some economic indicators are followed very well by our industrialist crises of price index would as well be avoided".

"The issue of share manipulation was personal but Nigeria is greater than everyone since the matter has been investigated by SEC and NSE we have no choice than to accept the report and recommendations and after a careful study we shall further make our own report based on what we have seen.

"The two regulatory institutions shall be invited to brief the committee on their report, though the report of NSE has already been made public but in the course of studying the reports if there are reservations we shall not hesitate to let the public know," he said.

Before Dangote and Otedole left the venue of the hearing at the new wing of the House, they embraced themselves to the admiration of onlookers.

Meanwhile, the police in Lagos on Wednesday arraigned two staff of a Lagos-based communication outfit, Prize Communications Ltd and six newspaper vendors before a Tapa Magistrate Court for allegedly circulating libelous materials against Dangote.

Those arraigned were Adeolu Olufunso, Affia Grilo, Ademola Afolabi, Chika Idor, Simeon Okonkwo, Owoseni Femi, Michael Benedict and Azubuike Jacob.

They were arraigned on a four-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony to wit, libelous defamatory conduct likely to cause breach of peace and threat to life, an offence punishable under Section 516 of the Criminal Code Cap C17, Vol.2, Laws of Lagos State.

They were also accused of circulating the said materials with the intent to injure the reputation of Dangote by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule and damage his status as the first vice president of the Council of Nigerian Stock Exchange.

They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The Magistrate however, later admitted all the eight accused persons to bail with one surety each, a N200,000 bail bond, evidence of tax payment, two passports photographs, an identity card and a driver's licence.

The police had last week raid the premises of the communication firm claiming to be looking for incriminating documents linking the firm to a new publication.

http://www.independentngonline.com/busi/lead/article01