Oteh Must Go, Reps Tell Jonathan

Three days after President Goodluck Jonathan, protested the non-inclusion of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) budget in the 2013 Appropriation Act, the House of Representatives has restated its position that the Director-General of the SEC, Ms Arunma Oteh, was not qualified to hold the office and should be sacked.
This is just as the Committee on Legislative Compliance has been mandated to monitor and report the level of compliance to the House within 21days.
The House, had last year, following the report and recommendations of the  Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi-led Adhoc Committee that investigated the near total collapse of the capital market last year passed a resolution mandating President Goodluck Jonathan, to remove Oteh from the office for not possessing the requisite professional qualification prescribed in the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) Act for appointment to the office of director-general.

However, the executive has failed to respect the resolution which presidency spokespersons have described as advisory, leading to the resolve of the House to allocate zero budget to the commission. The president has described this move as having negative impact on the capital market.
During the plenary session yesterday, Garba Datti (CPC, Kaduna)brought a motion under Matter of Urgent Public Importance  “on the blatant disregard for resolutions of the House of Representatives.”

Datti said while leading the debate that the executive has persistently disregarded resolutions of the House.
 “Aware that most of these resolutions, though products of motions, hinge on fundamental public duty placed on public officers by the constitution under the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.

“The motion urging the removal of Ms  Arumah Oteh, for instance, was hinged on the fact that her appointment as director-general of the Securities Exchange Commission(SEC) was a gross violation of the Commission’s  Act as she does not possess the minimum professional qualification prescribed for appointment to that position.

“Alarmed that recently the Executive has adopted the dangerous and vexatious approach of picking and choosing the implementation of resolutions of the Senate on the dismissal of Abdulrasheed Maina which was passed much later in time while still disregarding the long pending motion on the removal of the director-general of the SEC.”

Posted in: 9ja News