KEY stakeholders in the stock market have asked the Vice-President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, to resign his position on account of the credibility crisis that his alleged involvement in the African Petroleum Plc share manipulation scam might have created for the stock market.

Dangote, the billionaire president of Dangote Group, who is also gunning for the presidency of the NSE, was accused by African Petroleum Plc of masterminding a scheme to force down its share price.

AP said that Nova Finance and Securities Limited, acting on Dangote’s instructions, “crossed” its shares, which resulted in a price crash from N293 to N54 over an eight-week period.

AP claimed that the action was a fallout of a personal feud between its chairman, Mr. Femi Otedola, and Dangote

The NSE, which said the matter was under investigation, has fined and suspended Nova Securities from trading, while AP was also fined for bringing the matter to the press before reporting to the council. It was, however, silent on Dangote.

President, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dr. Simon Okolo, said the issue was a moral burden, demanding a voluntary resignation from whoever has been so indicted.

According to him, the normal thing in advanced economies was for the individual concerned to resign in order to give way for a thorough and unbiased investigation.

He said, “Once so indicted, it is a moral demand that the individual should resign to allow for an unhindered investigation. It is important because that will allow for a thorough investigation by the security agencies.

Besides, he said for Dangote to retain his seat on the NSE council had implications for the integrity of the Exchange.

“This is very important because NSE is important to the business and prospects of the country. The exchange sends signals to the outside world. So the officials should be seen to be above board,” he added.

Chairman of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Chief Sunny Nwosu, said Dangote needed not be told to withdraw from the race for the next president of the NSE and resign his position on the NSE council.

According to him, “Somebody in his position should not do anything to undermine the capital market. The market already has a problem and it does not need anything that will bring it to further question. It is obvious that he should resign from the council.

“This is a great embarrassment to the NSE members and the regulators. There is already a big question mark on the NSE and it is unfortunate that this sort of thing happened and involved those that are supposed to govern the stock exchange.

“The NSE has to quickly come out with the result of its investigation because a lot of people that used AP shares as collateral for loans would have run into trouble, because banks would have called the loans as the share price fell rapidly.”

The Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr. Boniface Okezie, said Dangote’s should be sanctioned.

He said “I think the Nigerian Stock Exchange has got the whole thing wrong, if Dangote acted as an investor, and was involved in crossing shares, then it is for his own selfish reasons, and it has affected the market as a whole. I am sure it is a punishable offence by the NSE.

“I would not want to believe that the NSE is afraid of Dangote, because their silence over all this is definitely sending a wrong signal to the investing public and the whole thing would keep affecting our market.

“We are of the opinion that Dangote should resign from the council and forget that ambition of becoming the president of the NSE, because he has lost all the moral justification.

However, the Chief Executive Officer, Mainland Trust Limited, Mr. Samuel Olayemi, who is also a member of the NSE council, wondered why Dangote should be sanctioned.

He said, “On what grounds should Dangote be sanctioned? If he told his broker to do something, then the broker should know better, I mean, if one of my clients asked me to do something wrong, I should be able to use my professional judgement to advise him on if that particular action is right or wrong. So, I think the stockbroker should be blamed for any wrong, and not the investor, I do not see the need for him to be sanctioned.”

A former council member of the Exchange, who did not want to be named, blamed the scenario on the failure of the NSE management to perform its functions.

“Where was the so-called regulator when this whole thing went on for eight weeks? We should not blame Dangote. The question we should ask is what is the regulator doing, they are there on the floor every day collecting fees and yet this sort of thing happened and they could not detect it.