The Financial Reporting Council has suspended the public hearing schedule for today on the draft National Code of Corporate Governance due to a court injunction obtained against the hearing by some shareholders
Meanwhile the Council has dismissed the allegation of division among its board members as well as misappropriation of funds for the take off of the International Financial Reporting Standard Academy.
Addressing journalists at the Headquarters of the Council in Lagos yesterday, Chairman, Board of FRC, Hajia Ibrahim, said that the proposed public hearing for the draft National Code of Corporate Governance earlier scheduled for today (Tuesday) has been stopped by a court injunction. She said that after releasing the exposure draft of the code, and allowing 30 days for observations from stakeholders, the Council decided to hold the public hearing to education the public about the Code, and also hearing from the various stakeholders their observations and reservations about the Code. “That was what we are preparing for only for us to receive a court injunction against the hearing.
“We are surprised at it because when we said we want to have a public hearing, it is for you to come up and hear your grievances about the corporate governance code. If you don’t come forward and talk to the public, and for us to put together what we need to put together, we cannot move forward as a nation. And it is not that as soon as we meet tomorrow, it becomes a law for Nigeria. If not for this court injunction, after the public hearing the steering committee who actually started the programme, will put together all the observations, which will now be submitted to the technical committee who will look at it again before it is submitted to the board for the final board consideration. So it is a long process. So for those people who have gone to court, it was an opportunity for them to express their own feelings about the code.
Refuting the allegations of division among members of the Council’s board, she said, “I am surprised at the question that is problem or war in the board. When I told the board members and they saw some of the publications they were surprised, that where is the war, where is the problem? There is no problem whatsoever among the board members”.
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