Chairman of the House Committee on the Capital Market, Hon. Hernan Hembe

By Tunde Sulaiman

In a move rarely seen in Nigeria, the Chairman of the House Committee on the Capital Market, Hon. Hernan Hembe along with all the members of his committee stepped down Tuesday from the probe of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The move comes on the back of allegations levelled against Hembe by the SEC Director General, Ms. Arunma Otteh that she was being prosecuted because she refused to endorse monetary requests made by the Committee Chairman.

Following the announcement, which was made on the floor of the House, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal then announced the setting up of an Ad Hoc Committee to continue the probe, with Ibrahim El-Sudi. The Committee has 21 days to conclude its assignment.

A visibly angry Hembe, who called for the continuation of the probe, said he would be seeking legal redress in an effort to clear his name of the allegations levelled against him. 

Last week during the public hearing on SEC, its DG, Ms Otteh had claimed the House of Representatives members have asked her for an N44Million Naira bribe, the said bribe was supposed to have been paid to the committee investigating her alleged financial recklessness through its chairman- Hernan Hembe.

According to Ms Otteh, N39 million naira would have gone on the public hearing, while the balance of N5 million would have been for sponsoring of foreign trips to the Dominican Republic for members of the committee and it would have included their estacodes.

Incidentally, just before this turn of event, Ms. Otteh had been accused of wasteful spending with over N30 million paid on hotel accommodation in just eight months.