19 November 2008
The Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] yesterday denied a statement credited to its director general Musa Al-Faki that the Nigeria Stock Exchange is controlled by a clique, saying the story was a figment of the reporter's imagination.
A statement signed by its Head of Media Mr. Lanre Oloyi said SEC was forced to respond to the story because it is "capable of sending wrong signals to both local and off-shore investors."
Oloyi said, "To put the records straight, the management of the Commission led by the Director-General attended a hearing organized by the House Committee on Capital Market on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at the invitation of the Committee. Issues discussed were widely reported by many newspapers (see other newspapers). Where your reporter got his line of report is left for him to clarify. However, it does appear as if somebody's script was being played here, and there is reason to believe such."
SEC then accused Daily Trust, which carried the story last Friday, of "in the past few months, consistently favou-ring starkly negative headlines and stories on SEC and the capital market, some of which include: The Capital Market Stinks- Wadada ( Feb. 24, 2008); The Capital Market Stinks -Al-Faki (April 2, 2008);
SEC is incompetent -Rep (May 8, 2008) and Stock Market: Mismanagement may have caused "crash' - Ayagi."
The statement further said, "Wrongly attributing a serious statement made by another person to the Director-General of SEC is not only unprofessional but also unfair. We also believe that the Daily Trust is quite aware of the serious challenges investors and the stock market have gone through in the past 9 months. It is unwise to begin to promote (albeit wrongly) issues that could disturb the market recoveries we have begun to witness since the 4th of November 2008. The interest of Nigeria supersedes any vested private agenda that the story in question appears to be promoting. The Daily Trust should appreciate that the stock market is highly sensitive to information which could make or mar it. Therefore we implore greater circumspection, professionalism and fairness in future reportage of events in the capital market."
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