Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
August 3, 2015 – The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is in soup for breaching certain provisions of the law in issuing out bond to affected states in Nigeria.
National Coordinator, Legal Defence and Assistant Project, Mr. Chino Obiagwu made the revelation on social media while reacting to petition calling for removal of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State for corruption.
According to him LEDAP has sued SEC at the Investment and Securities Tribunal for allowing 15 state governments to borrow more money than their total annual allocation for the preceding year of the loans, contrary to section 224(3) of Investment and Securities Act.
According to him, the Act provides that no state government should borrow from the capital market more than 50 percent of its annual revenue for the preceding year.
He explained that SEC’s website has listed the states and the amounts they borrowed from the capital market.
The affected states are Abia, Enugu, Niger, Benue, Gombe, Edo, Lagos and others. According to him, Bayelsa borrowed over N25b and Osun nearly N60 billion.
