'My Vision for IST’

A lot have been defrauded and many have cried to the grave without getting justice while many are just angry at the system and yet do not know where they could take their complaints to, oblivious of the fact that there is actually a court that can simply

Federal Executive Council (FEC) to get our own house in Abuja and we would soon be packing into our property.

Let’s talk about memorable moments at the Tribunal?

For me, it was when we got FEC approval to acquire our own place. They also gave directive that they should give us land in the Central Business district where we now developed our own purpose built building.

Are you the first female to hold this position?

No, I am the second. The first was also a female and she held the position for two terms of five years each making ten years. It is usually tenure of five years, renewable for a second term and I came in in 2013.

How does it feel being a woman at the helm of affairs?

I don’t really know how it feels, I just feel like it is the same thing if you were man and I think that if you work hard enough, nobody would think of you as a woman when comes to the professional things.

What is the state of the capital market today?

You know that there was a fall in the capital market after the problems that occurred between 2007 to 2008 but transactions are building up now; there was a lull prior to the elections; people were apprehensive, not knowing what the outcome of the elections will be. But immediately after the lections, there was a sudden rise again.

Has your coming in been able to build confidence in the capital market operations?

It has but I wouldn’t say it is my coming in that had done that because the tribunal has always been there. The capital market is just building up and we are flowing along with it. Since I came in, we have delivered about 55 judgments and the total value of the verdict by the tribunal so far in monetary value is worth over 350 billion naira. So the tribunal has really helped to boost confidence in investors.

But there are some outstanding issues, you know lawyers like to explore loopholes and so they come up with preliminary objections. We have quite a number of appeals pending at the Court of appeal. What we did last September to save the situation was to have new IST rules. So here if you have a preliminary objection, then you have to file it along with your case, so that the delay can be cut off.

Working in the Tribunal has broadened my perspective. It is a different area entirely in my career. I have been in persecution, litigation and now this is adjudication.

How exactly does your Tribunal operate?

Our court is a civil court; it is not a criminal court. When the SEC gets reports about players in the market, it is their duty to investigate and may try them within their own Administrative Proceeding Committee (APC) and when they try them there and are not satisfied, they come and appeal to the Tribunal. You can also come directly to us. For example when you have complained to SEC and they didn’t do anything, you have the right to file your matter before us directly. So some of the kind of cases that are brought to us include market manipulation, share manipulation, fractions in the banks’ operations like when the banks claim to give people loans to buy shares and all that and when a stockbroker sells your shares without your permission etc., those are the kind of cases we handle. We also have cases of people collecting funds from investors claiming that they are investing them but at the end of the day, they misappropriate the funds. But right now, it appears we do not have wide publicity on the fact that there is a court for issues like these. We even have an alternative issue resolution department that deals with small claims. Like some people will say, I do not have money to go to court because I bought just about N10.000 shares… we have a unit that can deal with that. And another thing is that we are very expeditious, the law says we should complete our cases within 90 days and that is exactly what we do.

How has working in the tribunal affected you so far?

It has broadened my perspective because that is a different challenge all together in my professional career. I have been in criminal prosecution; I have been in civil litigation, and now this adjudication.

How many years have you been in the legal profession?

Ancient! I was called to the bar in 1978. My father was a lawyer and later a judge; he inspired me but didn’t force me. My mother was a fashion designer. And in between the two, I kept saying I would be either a fashion designer or a lawyer. My father was very strict and you how it I with children and strict people, I usually run away when I see my father as a child but I grew up to admire him all the same because he was a great disciplinary.

Can your recall your life as a Solicitor General and DPP in Abia State?

It was quite interesting because when Abia State was created in 1991, I was in the Ministry of Justice, Imo State, then I was already a deputy director and on the creation of Abia State, we had to go back home to set up a new Ministry. There were four of us who were the most senior and we were virtually mates. I became the pioneer DPP and another became the pioneer solicitor General. I was DPP for nine years. It was quite challenging especially when you had to decide on all the criminal matters in the state. You get threats, you get all kinds of things but once you believe you are doing the right thing, God would just protect you and then in 1999, I was appointed Solicitor General of Abia State.

Is there any interesting case that you like to remember?

I remember that there was one notorious kingpin in Abia, Umahia to be specific at that time. People thought he was untouchable, then he committed an offence and the police came from Lagos to investigate him. In the process of investigation, they found arms in his office and we charged him with unlawful possession of firearms and he wanted to bypass me and go above to stop the case. It was a battle between him and those above me and myself. We got him locked up and people were surprised. And they went about town saying who is this woman that was able to lock up this man who has never been stopped by the law or anybody before. And unfortunately, I never knew what he looked but I am sure he knew what I looked like.

What issue do you think the new president should address in Tribunal?

The challenge right now is that the Tribunal is set up by the Investment and Securities act but it is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution the way the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Federal High Court are mentioned by name in the Constitution and sometimes lawyers say that we are not a superior court of record. Before the last National Assembly, we presented an amendment to the Constitution, which should have formed part of the recent constructional amendment but we are surprised it was not recognised. But we know that some people try to cite that mischievously but it is not true because we are set up by an act of the National Assembly and we are given specific area we are suppose to conduct and the qualifications for the appointment of judges for the Tribunal is even higher than those of the High Courts. So we would like Mr. President to help us look at the Constitution and go further to amend that area, which is in the section 6. We just want us to be mentioned specifically there. Again, we also have part time judges and the full times judges too, we would also like if they can amend the law to make all the members full time members.

What is your vision for the tribunal?

It is a continuous thing. Like we would like to have zonal offices may be in the six geo-political zones. Right now we only have offices in Lagos, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Kano. So we would like to extend our services closer to the people by opening up as many more offices as possible. And then extending our publicity to those areas because right now we need a lot of enlightenments. My ambition is to get my services to as close as possible to the grassroots people so that those who have lost as low as #5000.00 can recover their money from the investors protection fund.

I want the common man out there to be assured that who ever steals his money, no matter how small, is not going scot-free. Again the whole issue of buying of shares also requires enlightenment. Investors also need to be enlightened about the kind of investments they make; you have to make informed investments.

I’m also guilty of that because I used to buy just any shares before now. It took me a while to realise that you must try and know what really you are investing in. You need to be well informed of what you want to achieve before going into the stock market so that you would not fall into some of the loopholes some people fall into because stockbrokers more often pry on people’s ignorance.

Majority of the stockbrokers are genuine but like in every profession, you have the good, bad and ugly. So once in a while you find those who just want to play a fast one on the investors, prying on their ignorance.