Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has charged the main players in the Nigerian capital market to come to its rescue and ensure that the investment of Nigeria are protected from fraudulent operators.

He charged the main players in the market, such as Securities and Exchange Commission (regulatory), Nigerian Stock Exchange, stock brokers, legal practitioners, trustees, issuing houses, registrars, to work together to rescue the market, with a view to making Nigeria dig deep to achieve its goal of economic diversification.

Dogara who made the plea today while delivering an address at the opening ceremony of Stakeholders Forum on the Capital Market and Nigeria's economy, at NAF Conference Centre, Abuja, remarked that it has become imperative in view of the fact that the nation is in dire need of investors to bring in their resources to diversify its sources of income.

Dogara said: “We strongly believe that the Capital Market is a major tool for wealth creation and mobilisation of funds to grow and diversify the Nigerian economy. We want to emphasise that any proposed legislation must find a way to protect ordinary Nigerians, some of whom have invested their life savings in the market, from fraudulent market players.

“Many Nigerian’s have tales of woes from the irresponsible activities of these unscrupulous stakeholders in the market. The recent regulatory sanctions to some stock brokers and market players is therefore, is a step in the right direction.”

The conference was organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on Capital Market and Institutions.

•Photo shows Speaker Dogara.