Oando denies management team replacement

Oando Plc Monday said its management and board of directors remained unchanged, hours after Securities and Exchange Commission said it has set up an interim management team for the oil firm.

“Oando’s Management Team and Board of Directors have not changed,” the company tweeted on Monday.

The interim management team will be headed by Mutiu Olaniyi Adio Sunmonu, SEC said.

SEC spokesperson Efe Ebelo said the replacement followed after investigation revealed that Oando’s group chief executive Wale Tinubu, his deputy Omamofe Boyo and the oil company committed, among other infractions, “false disclosure” and “misstatements in financial statements”.

The Commission said it had substantial evidence that there were instances of “serious infractions such as false disclosures, market abuses, misstatements in financial statements, internal control failures, and corporate governance lapses stemming from poor board oversight, irregular approval of directors’ remuneration, unjustified disbursements to directors and management of the company, related party transactions not conducted at arm’s length, amongst others.”

SEC consequently directed that Tinubu and Boyo to resign from the board of the oil company immediately and that the duo must be replaced through an extraordinary general meeting by July 1, 2019, the Commission said.

Tinubu, Boyo and Oando are also expected to monetary penalties and also refund “improperly disbursed remuneration.”

Ebelo noted that Sunmonu will oversee the affairs of Oando Plc, and conduct an Extra Ordinary General Meeting on or before July 1, 2019, to appoint new directors to the Board of the company, who would subsequently select a management team for Oando Plc.

But the oil firm denied the development, stating that its management team and board of directors remained unchanged. In an earlier statement, the oil company said the claims of infractions against both Tinubu and Boyo cannot be substantiated and that it could not ascertain the findings of a forensic audit carried out by Deloitte & Touche on behalf of SEC.

It said it may take the Commission to court on the matter.