October 20, 2017

These are really traumatic days for Nigeria’s Oando Plc as its shares on Thursday were suspended from trading at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE. This is coming hours after its shares were suspended from trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, following series of petitions from aggrieved shareholders and what the Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, called ‘huge debts’.

Oando had been enmeshed in a trail of trouble with some of its shareholders who threatened but failed to abort its last Annual General Meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Their grouse bordered on allegations of gross misconduct levelled against the management of the oil firm. The petitioners also called for the removal of Wale Tinubu as the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer.

This precipitated in SEC asking the NSE to suspend the embattled company on Wednesday. NSE complied and consequently tipped off the JSE to follow suit.

The suspension in South Africa was conveyed in a notice issued on Thursday by the JSE. The notice read: “The Company has received communication from its primary listing, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, that the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, have issued a directive to immediately suspend the trading of Oando shares, a directive to which the NSE has complied.

“The JSE has accordingly suspended trading of the Oando shares with effect from 09:00 a.m. SA time, pending clarification following the review of subsequent correspondence received on 18 October 2017 from the NSE and SEC and will provide a full statement of the Company’s position as soon as possible.”

Officials of Oando insist there was no justification for the suspension as the company is working internally to address all issues raised by the petitioners.

Some industry watchers have however attributed the latest development to political persecution of a major investor in Oando and a leader in the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who had in recent months fallen out of favour with the Presidency.