By Chris Ochayi
ABUJA—The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to unravel the allegation of financial impropriety to the tune of N11billion levelled against Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.
However, the umbrella body of the registered opposition parties has commended the Director-General of Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms Arunma Oteh for sacking the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.

The CNPP in a statement yesterday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechuckwu also applauded the decision of SEC’s management on the suspension of the President of the Exchange, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and his Council.

According to CNPP, “we salute Ms Oteh and her team for exercising their oversight functions in line with the Investment and Securities Act, ISA; for in our considered view the dismissal of Professor Okereke-Onyiuke and co was long overdue and in the public best interest, to revamp a Stock Exchange that lost over N110 billion in the first week of this month.

“CNPP had watched haplessly as Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and co, personalized the NSE, converted the Stock Market into Casino Market and flagrantly corrupted the market; which led to erosion of the integrity of the market, debilitating litigations and internecine boardroom succession squabbles.

Mr. Okechukwu added, “Nigerians cannot forget easily how Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and co abandoned the core values of the NSE and descended into the political arena by forming a phony organization dubbed – Corporate Nigeria – an organization which used depositors’ fund entrusted in its care to fund the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in their escapades of the 2003 and 2007 sham elections.

“As she was not queried by the then SEC leadership for corrupting our political system, she exported her perfidy overseas, by raising fund locally for the President Obama campaign against the laws of the United States of America; the Obama Campaign Organization had to stop her on the tracks.

“The Transcorp deal, in which Professor Okereke-Onyiuke unprofessionally entered into an unholy alliance with ex-president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to defraud the nation; is one of the misdemeanors of the invidious era which must be investigated by the SEC and EFCC.

“In sum, while CNPP applauds the direct intervention in the NSE, the preservation of the Stock Market stability and restoration of public confidence by SEC; we call on SEC leadership in league with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to step-in as a matter of urgent national importance, to unravel the N11billion Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s allegation of financial impropriety levelled against Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and co , inside trading irregularities and other under the table deals which turned the Stock Exchange into a Casino.