BY BEN AGANDE & MICHAEL EBOH
ABUJA—The House of Representatives was yesterday, embroiled in controversy following mutual allegations of corruption between the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arumah Oteh and the House.

Ms Oteh who was on Wednesday accused of expending N850,000 a day on food and raking in other irregular expenses, yesterday, threw her own mud at the House, alleging that the Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Markets, Rep Herman Hembe demanded N44 million bribe demand from her. She also accused the lawmaker of collecting estacode and other travelling allowances for a foreign trip from SEC but neither went nor returned the money.

The House committee on its part also unveiled more allegations against Ms Oteh, accusing her of renting an accommodation for herself at N66 million and irregularly purchasing four official vehicles for herself. The purchases according to the House officials were in violation of existing government regulations on monetization of allowances.

Arunma Oteh

The allegations were raised on the second day of Ms Oteh’s appearance at the public hearing of the collapse of the capital market which is holding under the aegis of the House Committee on Capital Market.

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal according to sources was yesterday deeply troubled by the development which could form the nucleus of the first major scam in the seventh House of Representatives. Speaker Tambuwal was believed to have sent the House Leader, Rep. Isiaku Bawa and the Chief Whip — to monitor the developments at the hearing.

Hembe chairman of the Committee on Capital Market who is at the centre of the allegations denied the allegations yesterday insisting that he had neither visited the commission for oversight nor demanded money for any purpose.

Hembe also expressed his readiness to be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.

While doubting her ability to get fair hearing before the committee, she raised allegations of impropriety against Hembe saying:

“Hembe is corrupt and lacks credibility. For instance, he collected estacode and other travel allowances from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to travel to the Dominican Republic on a capacity enhancement conference for capital market regulators. He did not go, neither did he return the money collected.

“Also, he asked the commission to contribute N39 million towards the ongoing charade of a public hearing and demanded another N5 million cash on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. He made both demands by proxy.

”So I doubt it if I can have fair hearing from this committee and this fact has been more than demonstrated with the way you are handling this important issue.

“He used collaborators and co – conspirators to steal and smuggle these documents out of the Commission. In the spirit of fair hearing, he did not even write to us to confirm them. So, the credibility of the house is in doubt and this Committee is looking more and more like a kangaroo court.”

Public hearing not personal decision — Bawa

Worried by the tempestuous nature of the hearing yesterday, the leadership of the house had to delegate the House Majority Whip, Hon. Isiaku Bawa to reassure that the public hearing was at the instance of the House and not a personal decision of the committee.

Responding to the allegation that she recruited a staff of one of the distressed banks to be a consultant, Oteh said:

“You had implied that as a regulator, that by having people on secondment from the private sector, it could undermine the capacity of the regulatory functions of the commission. In asking the SEC to contribute N39 million for this public hearing, don’t you think that you are undermining your capacity to carry out your duties?

“You think that if Hon Ihedioha, the deputy speaker of this House, being the nephew to Professor Ndi-Okereke Onyuike and having his wife work in Abuja office of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, do you think it will be compromising his capacity to carry out his duties?

“I do not think that it is appropriate for you to have gathered information from the SEC and without even asking us to verify that information, to respond to that issue and that you already made the judgment that you made yesterday; we are trying to build a democracy. This has been a Kangaroo court. Not even in Idi Amin’s Uganda did we have this type of public hearing,” she stated.

But Hon. Hembe who appeared unruffled by the allegations retorted: “If what I am doing is because of the fact that I have collected money from SEC to go on overseas trip to study and I didn’t go which is why I am doing what I am doing, the public will take note. But if it is the wish of members of the committee that I respond to the issues, I will go ahead and respond to the issues. I will respond to the issues as much as I can.

”I hope this is not a ploy to distract us from achieving the main objectives of this public hearing. Please let this not be a ploy to distract us from achieving the main objective of this hearing.

“I believe that we have the representatives of the ICPC and the EFCC with us. The issue of corruption or no corruption we should put it aside.

We are ready for probe — Hembe

“They are here and they will write their report. I think we should concentrate on the major issue here. Let’s see how we can forge ahead with the hearing and achieve something before the end of the day. I want to say something as the Chairman of this Committee. I will Chair this committee to the end of this public hearing. I want to say firmly, in support of what you have said that the issues of bias or corruption the Committee invited the EFCC and the ICPC.

”Strong issues of corruption have been made against me. Strong issues of corruption have been made against the committee. So it is our hope that you will investigate me deeply and investigate the committee too. I give the permission to that and that is my ruling (hits the gravel). We will proceed with the business of the committee” he said.

The Chief Whip of the House who was sent by the House leadership to the Public hearing assured that “the House leadership is very aware of the ugly development in the proceedings of the public hearing. So, they have asked me to come and see how both parties can be appealed to in order to ensure a peaceful conduct of the public hearing. We should all put aside our personal differences and look at Nigeria. This public hearing is at the instance of the resolution of the House and it will go on. Nobody can stop it. Let us confine ourselves to facts and issues of the matter. All these issues will not derail us from doing our job. Nothing will stop this hearing from going on” Bawa said.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, the committee heard how the Director-General of the SEC rented her accommodation for N66,125,000 despite the fact that by the monetization policy of the Federal government the commission was not supposed to rent accommodation for her.

The committee was also told that despite the failure of the Tender Board to meet, the Director General authorized the purchase of four cars for herself.

Arunma Oteh others at the Senate's Public Hearing in Abuja

But in her defence, the Director-General of the Commission said as the chief regulator of the Capital Market, that she was entitled to four official cars as well as furnished accommodation. ‘What I did not want was to live under the bridge as the apex regulator or have to live with friends or relatives’, she said.