Earlyface

Each of the recipients got N2.5 million.
An official of the Federal Road Safety
Commission, FRSC, Nwolbak Konpe, and an
apprentice trader, Ngwu Uchenna, are 2013
winners of SEC Integrity Award.
The duo emerged joint winners at the 2013
annual Capital Market Committee, CMC,
Retreat in Abuja for “exhibiting high level of
integrity in different circumstances.”
Mr. Konpe was selected for the award for
returning money in excess of N1.2 million he
recovered from the scene of a motor
accident involving nine victims in which
seven died; while Mr. Uchenna was
rewarded for returning N400,000 he found
in a tricycle, popularly called ‘keke NAPEP.’
On discovering the money at the accident
scene, Mr. Konpe was said to have reported
it to his command from where it was
returned to the owners.
Similarly, Mr. Uchenna reportedly took the
money he found to the presenter of a
popular radio programme, ‘Brekete’ on Love
FM, Abuja, from where the owner was
invited and the money handed back to him.
Mr. Uchenna his action was influenced by
his strong moral upbringing by the father,
who, he said, always counseled him against
taking whatever did not belong to him.
For emerging joint winners, the duo were
rewarded with N5million, to be shared
equally.
The Director General of the SEC, Arunma
Oteh, who instituted the award in 2012, to
underscore the central role integrity plays in
the capital market, said N1million cash
would be given to each of them.
Ms. Oteh said the balance of N1.5million
would be invested in the three top
performing Collective Investment Schemes in
the Nigerian capital markets.
The investment in Collective Investment
Schemes, she pointed out, underscores SEC’s
commitment to stimulating growth in the
managed funds segment of the capital
markets. The scheme advertises the near
risk-free status of Collective Investment
Schemes as an avenue for investing in the
capital market.
“The integrity award has the dual objective
of rewarding honesty, integrity, purity and
transparency as bedrock cultural values of
capital markets and encouraging investment
in Collective Investment Schemes registered
in the Nigerian capital market”, Ms. Oteh
said.
She said only Nigerians who exceed the call-
of-duty by performing a rare act of honesty,
qualify to be nominated for the award,
adding that such Nigerians must be of
exemplary integrity in the conduct of their
personal, business or professional life.
“They must be people who have sacrificed
self for a higher cause,” she said. She said
the bases for selecting the winners for the
award were their rare acts of integrity and
moral uprightness, which they variously
exhibited.
The maiden edition of the award in 2012
went to an Abuja Airport taxi driver, Imeh
Usuah, who returned N18 million cash
forgotten in his cab by his two customers.