Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has suspended Mr. Erastus Akingbola, former group chief executive officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc, as its second vice president in line with the directive of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Sec).

Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange confirmed the suspension last Friday, explaining that the council has asked Akingbola to “abstain from attending the council’s meeting until he is cleared by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).”

The board of Sec, the apex regulatory body of the capital market, had recently directed the NSE “that in order to protect the integrity of the capital market, the commission has directed the immediate suspension of any of the affected executives of the five banks who are members of the council of the NSE pending the conclusion of investigation of allegations against them by the CBN. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on August 14 removed from office Akingbola, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, Mr. Bath Ebong, Mr. Okey Nwosu and Mr. Sebastian Adigwe as chief executives of their respective banks over allegation of gross misconduct and unethical practices in the on-going reform of the Nigerian banking industry.

The NSE council had elected Akingbola as second vice president at its 48th yearly general meeting held in Lagos recently.

Until the current development, Akingbola was the chairman of Lagos/ Ibadan Zonal Council of the NSE. The zone covered Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Kwara, Kogi and Ekiti States.

Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, director-general of the NSE had told journalists in the wake of removal of Akingbola from office as chief executive of Intercontinental Bank the he would remain the second vice-chairman of the NSE unless he is indicted by security agents.

She had explained that Akingbola was elected chairman of the Lagos/Ibadan council of the NSE last year and his election was ratified at the 48th annual general meeting of the NSE held recently.

She said Akingbola was elected into the council in his personal capacity and did not come on board to represent Intercontinental Bank.

The director-general said “Until security agencies in the country tell them something different about him, he will remain our second vice-chairman.”

Okereke-Onyiuke said besides this, NSE has its own rules and regulations on such issues pertaining to its individual members, explaining that in order to avoid conflict of interest, only the individual members of the NSE are allowed to be is officers.

The Financial Standard, Monday August 31, 2009.