House of Reps Members Demanded N44 Million Bribe —DG Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Arunma Oteh

After Wednesday’s damming revelations at the House of Representatives that the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh, allegedly spent N30m on hotel bills in eight months and in one day alone, allegedly spent N850,000 on food, all of which was debited SEC’s account, the embattled SEC boss has fiercely fought back, accusing the Chairman of the House of Rep Committee on Capital Market, Herman Hembe of demanding bribe from the SEC.

Ms. Oteh on Thursday alleged the lawmakers are furious at her because she turned down a request by lawmakers for N44million bribe.

The SEC boss said that the Committee Chairman had demanded a bribe of N39 million from the SEC for the ongoing hearing.

She further accused Mr Hembe of demanding N5million from the commission to enable him travel to the Dominican Republic to attend an Emerging market conference without embarking on the journey.

The serious accusations unsettled the mood at the hearing, which is being beamed live on television, with lawmakers scrambling to play down its implications.

Ms. Oteh questioned the credibility of the Chairman of the committee in conducting the probe, considering her allegations, describing the ongoing probe as a ‘Kangaroo court’, and likened the probe to an era of former Uganda leader, Idi Amin, saying “not even during the Idi Amin regime, did we have this kind of session.”

She added she was warned before her appointment, over two years ago, that “corruption will fight back at me.”

In his response, Mr Hembe noted all the allegations listed by the SEC and subjected himself and the committee to another probe which he ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to take up.

11 COMMENTS

  1. What do Nigerians expect from this unmarried/unmarrigible Ms Arunmah Oteh? Even full Time prostitutes do not stay all that long in hotels nor spend that kind of money on food, drinks, entertainments. How many hrs per day did she work for SEC if one may ask to have so much time for hotelling. Similarly the Area boys/girls and active cultists who constitute the bulk of the national assembly should not be expected to fair better especially those with publicly known dubious background. The simple solution to all these probe revelations is to ask the crooks to refund 10 x the amount stolen or hand them over to BOKO HARAM which is every where and is known to do a better job than EFCC or the police or the dead magistrates and high courts. What a shame in a Nation where a CEO/MD/DG/GOV/MINISTER/etc will single handedly steal billions of Nigeria. This is keke story. Let all the financial people who allowed it to happen be jailed for life – no plea bargaining.

  2. To solve this corruption problem, I have these three suggestions to make:
    1.The Federal Government should look inward- her parastatals and agencies. That is where the corruption begins.
    2.The Federal Government should look outward- the national assembly and its agencies.
    3.There should be capital punishment for any corrupt individual found guilty. All their properties and monies should be confiscated.

  3. These so called leaders are THIEVES! All of them with no exception, How long shall we stand this, our destinies are in our own hands, there is too much corruption at the top stealing with impunity, let’s take our destinies people, let the REVOLUTION begin!

  4. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was in the best position to fight corruption during his tenure as president. I confided in a few people then that should the anti-corruption campaign lose its steam and bite as championed by Nuhu Ribadu at that time, we might as well kiss the country ”goodbye” to the cold arms of the Vice. I hope our dear country is not getting to the ”state of nature” where the law is impotent, and every man has to devise ingenius ways of surviving in a country ruled by conscienceless bastards who have no love for their country nor fellow citizens, a majority of whom wallow in poverty in the midst of plenty.