By ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH

Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde, yesterday promised that hell will be let loose on stockbrokers and other stakeholders who use their positions to defraud clients.

Also, the EFCC boss promised that the antigraft agency will not relent or shy away from exposing corporate entities and individuals that engage in fraudulent practices.

Lamorde made this statement at the Memorandum of Understanding and Bell ringing ceremony between the EFCC and the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Friday, in a bid to guard against infractions on extant rules by players on the exchange, Lamorde stated that the MoU signing ceremony and Bell Ringing that took place on the floor of the Exchange is an acknowledgement of the importance of the NSE. ”It is an acknowledgement of the obvious significance of the NSE in the lives of millions of Nigerians and the nation as a corporate entity”.

According to him, the MoU basically seeks to promote cooperation between the Exchange and the commission, adding that the EFCC will meet its obligations in order to help achieve the highest levels of transparency and accountability in the operations of the NSE and take the stock market to the next level.

He further stated that though he “may not have physically come to the Exchange in the past, the activities of certain individuals and organisations had made the crossing of our paths inevitable”.

The EFCC head added that the stock exchange of any nation is the window on the economy of that nation and the snapshots it provides on a daily basis, mirrors the nation’s economic essence.

”When the stock exchange is healthy or perceived to be sick, the nation is concurrently healthy or perceptibly sick.”