OTEH MUST GO, REPS INSIST

FOR the third time the House of Representatives, on Thursday, asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the embattled Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh.

It will be recalled that President Jonathan had formally asked the National Assembly to amend the 2013 Appropriation Act and pointedly told the lawmakers that they went beyond their brief by inserting a clause in the appropriation act allocating zero budget for the commission over the President’s refusal to sack her.

The House had called for Oteh’s sack through its resolution on near collapse of capital market, the decision that was ignored by the presidency.

The Clause 10 inserted in the 2013 Appropriation Act reads; “All revenue, however, described including all fees received, fines, grants, budgetary provisions and all internally and externally generated revenue shall not be spent by the Security and Exchange Commission for recurrent or Capital purposes or for any other matters, nor liabilities thereon incurred except with prior appropriation and approval by the National Assembly.”

However, President Jonathan had raised reservation on the clause saying, “Considering the fact that the budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission does not form part of the core 2013 Federal Budget as presented to the National Assembly, I believe that this clause ought not to have been inserted in the 2013 Appropriation Act in the first place. Secondly, the import of the clause is tantamount to shutting down the business of the Commission with a potential negative impact on the capital market.”

Ostensibly reacting to the President’s comment over National Assembly resolve that Oteh must go at all cost, the House through another motion on Oteh’s removal, moved by House Deputy Minority Whip Honourable Garba Datti it insisted that the presidency must act on its resolution and mandated its Committee on Legislative Compliance to monitor the compliance and report back within 21 days.

The lawmaker had, while moving his motion, said that “the inaction of the President was an extension of blatant disregard of the resolutions of the House of Representatives, and 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”.

According to him, “rhe motion urging the removal of Ms Arunma Oteh, for instance, hinged on the fact that her appointment as Director -Gerneral of the Securities Exchange Commission was a gross violation of the Commission’s Act as she does not possess the minimum professional qualification prescribed for appointment to that position”.

Continuing, he said, “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 Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Resolutions bordering on the breach of extant legislations should not be treated with levity as such tends to portray government in bad light”, he noted.

Other lawmakers who supported the motion include, Minority Leader of the House, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, Honourable Suleiman Aminu, Friday Itulah, Tajudeen Yusuf and Ibrahim El-Sudi.

When the motion was put to vote by the Speaker, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal who presided over the session it was unanimously supported.

Source: National Mirror