The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has summoned Rep Herman Hembe who resigned as chairman of the House of Representatives committee on Capital Market after Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Ms Arunma Oteh accused him of corruption.
Also to appear at the EFCC office is the committee clerk whom Oteh alleged stood as proxy in demanding for bribes from her, according to the invitation letter seen by Daily Trust.
In the letter, which was delivered to the committee yesterday, the anti-graft agency demanded that Hembe appear in person at the commission’s headquarters over the allegations of corruption leveled against him by Oteh.
Daily Trust could however not establish whether the EFCC had also invited Oteh. SEC officials said they were not aware of any invitaion by EFCC over the bribery allegation and counter allegation between Oteh and Hembe.
When contact, the Communication Adviser to the DG, Obi Adindu, said he has no information on the issue.
“I asked someone who is in the position to know within the Commission and he said he is not aware of it,” Adindu said.
Hembe, who stepped down as chairman of the committee investigating the capital market on Tuesday, said it was Oteh who tried to entice him with N30 million in the run up to the investigations of the “near-collapse” of the capital market by his committee.
Hembe and Oteh are entangled in corruption accusations, starting last Wednesday when the committee chairman accused her of spending N850,000 on food on a day alone and of incurring N30 million hotel bills.
Oteh hit back the following day, saying the committee chairman demanded bribes of N44 million and that he also collected foreign trip estacode from SEC for a journey he didn’t make.
Also on Tuesday, the House of Representatives constituted an ad hoc committee to take over the probe, confirming a Daily Trust exclusive story published on Tuesday.
“I made no attempt to collect any bribe, rather I worked hard to avoid the offer of such by the SEC DG,” Hembe told his colleagues, lifting documents which were later revealed to be copies of SEC internal memos supposedly backing his claims.
The memos, copies of which were made available to journalists, appeared to show that SEC management initiated the process of giving the House capital market committee N30 million to help facilitate the public hearings.
The House had already mandated its committee on Ethics and Privilege to investigate the allegations.
Meanwhile, a member of the Committee told Daily Trust that “As soon as the chairman (Hembe) appeared before the Ethics and Privilege Committee of the House next week Thursday, all the papers will be filed in court and served on the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
The lawmaker said Hembe had contacted a Senior Advocate of Nigeria yesterday over the matter.
Calls and text messages to Herman Hembe for confirmation were not answered and his aide claimed ignorance of the matter.
