{"id":18381,"date":"2019-05-31T10:26:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=18381"},"modified":"2019-05-31T10:26:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:26:57","slug":"court-orders-reinstatement-of-suspended-sec-dg-gwarzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=18381","title":{"rendered":"Court orders reinstatement of suspended SEC DG, Gwarzo"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Glory Abuh-Adejoh (NAN)<\/strong>
\nThe National Industrial Court, Abuja on Thursday ordered the\u00a0 immediate reinstatement of\u00a0 Mounir Gwarzo, the suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), back to his position.
\nJustice Sanusi Kado, in his judgment, held that the Minister of finance,\u00a0 named as second defendant in the suit\u00a0 lacked the power to suspend the claimant.
\nKado, who dismissed three issues raised by defence counsel through their preliminary objection, ruled that the the suit was not status barred.
\nHe held that since there was cause of action in the claimant\u2019s suit, hence he (claimant) had the right to commence the suit by way of originating summon.
\nKado further held that the issue in dispute was not about the position of the claimant as the DG of the Commission, but that\u00a0the bone of contention was who had the power to suspend him.
\nThe judge held that the second defendant ( Minister of Finance) did not have the power to suspend the claimant since he was not an employee of the commission.
\nHe said that the Minister, in the absence of the board, only had supervisory power, which does\u00a0 not include disciplinary power to suspend the DG.
\nKado held that it was only the Permanent Secretary in the of Ministry of Finance, on\u00a0 the directive of the president, who had the power of suspension.
\nFor emphasis he said, \u201cthe minister\u2019s role was that of recommendation.\u201d
\nKado in addition said the Administrative Panel of Inquiry that indicted the claimant was not a court of law neither was it a quasi-judicial body, but just a body set up for a fact finding duty.
\nHe therefore declared that the suspension of the claimant was null, void and of no effect.
\nKado also declared that the recommendation of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by the second defendant, be set aside.
\nThe judge then ordered the reinstatement of the claimant as the DG of SEC to complete his five year tenure.
\nHe further ordered that the claimant\u2019s salaries, allowances and entitlements accrued be paid to him in full.
\nNews Agency of Nigeria ( NAN), reports that Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the former Finance Minister, on Nov. 29, 2017, suspended Gwarzo and set up an administrative panel of inquiry to investigate allegations of financial impropriety levelled against him.
\nNAN also reports that the SEC DG was accused of collecting severance package worth N104.85 million while still in service in violation of the civil service rules.
\nThe minister said Gwarzo was suspended from office to allow for an unhindered investigation.
\nNAN reports that Gwarzo however, in June, 2018 approached the court to challenge his suspension.
\nHe sought for various reliefs from the defendant amongst which was an order of the court reinstating him as the DG of the Commission.
\nHe also sought for an order of the court for the payment of all his entitlements, emoluments, allowances and other perquisites of the office of DG of SEC for the entire period he was under suspension.
\nGwarzo equally sought for an order of court setting aside the entire proceedings of Administrative Panel of Inquiry constituted by the Minister.
\nNAN further reports that The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had charged Gwarzo with an Executive Commissioner in the commission, Zakawanu Garuba.
\nThey were arraigned on a\u00a0 five-count charge of alleged misappropriation to the tune of about N115 million and conferment of corrupt advantage on a public officer.
\nJustice Hussein Baba Yusuf of FCT High Court, Maitama however, on April,16 discharged Gwarzo of the alleged charge.
\nJoined in the suit as co-defendants,\u00a0 were SEC, Minister of Finance and Attorney- General of the Federation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Glory Abuh-Adejoh (NAN) The National Industrial Court, Abuja on Thursday ordered the\u00a0 immediate reinstatement of\u00a0 Mounir Gwarzo, the suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), back to his position. Justice Sanusi Kado, in his judgment, held that the Minister of finance,\u00a0 named as second defendant in the suit\u00a0 lacked the power to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}