- We’re Still in Court With Oando, Audit Continues –SEC
Nigeria’s capital market apex regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, says its legal tussle with Oando Plc with respect to the planned forensic audit of the oil firm and the suspension of its shares on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange will continue.
The regulator said the case would go ahead despite the recent announcement by Oando Plc that it had reached a peace accord with a major shareholder, Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, following a rift between both parties over the running of the company.
A top official of SEC in Abuja told our correspondent in a telephone interview that though the peace accord was a major development, the case between the regulator and Oando, which is currently in court, had not been concluded.
The source, who did not want to be named because the commission had not authorised that a comment be given, said, “As of today, we are still going on with the forensic audit. Of course, we are still in court with Oando.”
The management of Oando spent the better part of 2017 defending the company’s business and reputation following the SEC investigation into its affairs based on petitions raised by two shareholders, Mangal and Ansbury Inc.
On Monday, Mangal confirmed his status as a substantial shareholder in Oando and “all the issues he raised in his petition to the SEC have been successfully addressed and clarified,” the oil firm said in a statement.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, Oando, Adewale Tinubu, was quoted to have said, “I am pleased that we have been able to reach an amicable agreement with Alhaji Dahiru Mangal and successfully address the concerns he raised in his petition to SEC.”
Mangal was also quoted to have said, “Following the clarification I have received from Oando’s management team, I have withdrawn my petition to SEC.”
The successful execution of the peace accord was mediated by the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II.
On Tuesday, some shareholders under the aegis of the Oando Shareholders Solidarity Group, said the intervention of the emir should not stop the forensic audit planned by SEC.
