Nigeria’s finance ministry has not interfered in an inquiry by the country’s market regulator into oil company Oando, the finance minister, who last week suspended the Securities and Exchange Commission’s head, said.
Forensic auditors have resumed work at Oando, Kemi Adeosun said in a statement on Friday, Reuters reports, adding that the ministry had approved the original decision to carry out the audit into Oando’s shareholding structure.
Adeosun suspended SEC Director General Mounir Gwarzo over finance ministry allegations of financial impropriety, a month after Gwarzo started an investigation into Oando’s shareholding structure and froze trading in its shares.
Oando was not available to comment.
Gwarzo, who was not immediately available for comment, has alleged that his suspension was due to “his refusal to stop the forensic audit of Oando”, the finance ministry said in the statement on Friday.
“There was no directive whatsoever to discontinue investigation into Oando and this was reiterated to the current SEC leadership at the formal handover meeting,” Adeosun said.
The ministry has appointed Abdul Zubair to act as head of the commission while allegations that Gwarzo awarded contracts to firms related to him and family members are investigated.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are probing the circumstances of Gwarzo’s suspension, saying that they would look into whether the ministry had interfered with the SEC’s work.
The SEC on Tuesday said it had sent a letter to Oando, informing the company of its decision to conduct the audit, which it has appointed accounting firm Deloitte to handle.
Shares in Oando, which had been frozen at N5.99 since Oct. 18, sold off in heavy trading of 10.1 million units, a day after Gwarzo was suspended. It traded 1.5 million units on Friday at the fixed price.
Oando, which bought ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian business for $1.65 billion in 2014, had gone to court to challenge the suspension of its shares by the SEC.
