SEC boss paid self N104.8m severance, petitioner tells Reps

By Joshua Egbodo

Abuja

Petitioners under the aegis of Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) has accused the current Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo, of illegally paying himself the sum of N104.851 million as severance benefit.
This, the group alleged, was done for relinquishing his former position as a commissioner in the Commission.
The group stated this in a petition it submitted to the House of Representatives, alleging various financial abuses against the director-general.
Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, said the petition had been received formally by the Office of the Speaker, disclosing that due to the weight of the allegations, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and other relevant anti-corruption agencies had also been notified formally.
He said the package “is usually paid only to an employee of the Commission, who has concluded his or her service and has completely disengaged from the commission and not to an employee who has been promoted within the commission and has not severed out his employment with the Commission.”
“The personal interest of Mr. Gwarzo in the companies clearly contravenes the provisions of Nigerian law, which distinctively prohibit public officers from putting themselves in situations where their personal interest conflicts with their public duties,” he said.
He also accused Gwarzo of diverting certain assets of the commission, such as official vehicles as well as siphoning of public funds and disregard for constitutionality.
However, the Commission’s spokesman, Naif Abdulsalam, in response to enquiries on the matter, said “as a tradition, the Commission follows laid down rules and regulations in all its activities, and in this particular case, we ensured that no relevant policy is breached.”

 

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