Court Frees Gwarzo, Dismisses ICPC’s Suit Against Suspended SEC DG

Victory came the way of the suspended Director-General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mounir Gwarzo, on Tuesday, as the FCT High Court dismissed a five-count charge of financial misconduct leveled against him by the Independent and Corrupt Practices and Other Related Commission (ICPC).

Gwarzo was discharged and acquitted after his arraignment today by the ICPC before the court.

The anti-corruption agency arraigned the embattled SEC boss alongside an Executive Commissioner in SEC, Zakawani Garuba, who was charged with two-counts.

The ICPC had accused the SEC DG of allegedly conferring undue advantage upon himself by receiving N104.8m as severance benefit and N10.4m car grant while still in service.

Part of ICPC’s five count charge read, “That you Dr Mounir Haliru Gwarzo (M) between May and June 2015 or thereabouts at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, during the period of your appointment as the Director-General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), being entrusted with the management of SEC did commit criminal breach of trust to wit: dishonestly misappropriating the sum of N104,851,154.94 (One Hundred and Four Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty One Thousand ,One Hundred and fifty four Naira and Ninety Four Kobo), as your severance package which you were not entitled to, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 311 and punishable under 312 of the Penal Code Act Cap 532 volume 4 Laws of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, 2007”.

“That you Zakawany Garuba (M) on or about June 2015 or thereabouts at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, while being a public officer as a Commissioner in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) used your position to confer a corrupt advantage upon another public officer to wit: approving the sum of N104,851,154.94( One Hundred and Four million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-One Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty-Four Naira Ninety-Four Kobo) as severance package to the then Director-General of SEC; Dr Mounir Haliru Gwarzo which he was not entitled to and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000”.

Both Gwarzo and Garuba had filed a no-case submission against the agency.

In his ruling, Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf held that the ICPC failed to prove any of the essential elements of the offence against Gwarzo. The judge also held that ICPC’s evidence against the suspended SEC DG was contradictory.

The judge held that the first defendant “is hereby discharged and acquitted of counts 1, 2 and 3 and by inference, all the charge against him.”

Justice Baba-Yusuf also discharged the two-counts against the second defendant, Garba.

Recall that Kemi Adeosun, Nigeria’s former minister of finance, had based her suspension of Gwarzo on alleged “proven cases of financial misconduct, unlawful catting away of sensitive documents.”

Adesoun, at a press briefing on 8th December 2017, also claimed that she suspended Gwarzo because he failed to satisfactorily respond to queries issued to him.

But at a subsequent public hearing summoned on the matter by the House of Representatives Committee on the Capital Market and Institutions, Gwarzo denied the former minister’s allegation.

He noted that Adeosun allegedly suspended him due to his insistence on the forensic audit of Oando plc, which he claimed the former minister had conflicting interest in.

“SEC received a petition from Ansbury Investment Inc an indirect shareholder of Oando and another petition from another shareholder of Oando Plc Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, all dated 2 May and 4 May 2017 alleging the Management of Oando of financial fraud and corporate governance breaches. SEC reviewed the petitions and constituted a technical committee to examine the conflicts which reveals many infractions that includes Insider dealings on the sale of 1.21b shares amounting to N21.5b and Related party transaction in which Oando paid over N200b,” the commission had said in a press statement.