Reps to summon stakeholders over unresolved AMCON debts

Victor Nwokolo, chairman, house of representatives committee on banking and currency, says the leadership of different agencies of the government will be summoned to investigate the delay by the inter-agency committee on the debt owed to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

Nwokolo said this over the weekend at this year’s edition of the house of representatives committee on banking, and currency retreat with the management of AMCON and other stakeholders in Lagos.

The retreat was tagged ‘Asset recovery as a tool for enhanced growth, and stability of the banking sectors sustaining the impact and bridging the challenges of AMCON.’

The inter-agency committee is chaired by Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN) who is also the ICPC chairman.

On July 31, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo set up a task force with a mandate to develop a strategy to recover the N5 trillion owed to the corporation.

 The police had also pledged their support to intensify the recovery of the debts.

The agencies tasked to go after the debtors are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), and the ministry of justice.

Others are heads of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the federal ministry of justice, and AMCON.

Nwokolo said it was sad that agencies of the federal government of Nigeria work at cross-purposes rather than collaborating to ensure that they support the federal government and the economic recovery of Nigeria after the coronavirus pandemic.

“We cannot continue like this because we are answerable to the people of Nigeria and our constituencies as lawmakers. They will hold us accountable if we fail to take decisive actions that would help AMCON to recover these huge outstanding debts,” he said.

Nwokolo also found it unpleasant that the committee set up by Osinbajo, which was supposed to force sister agencies of the government to collaborate and mount pressure on AMCON obligors within the ambit of the law to ensure that these debts are resolved, had not been working.

” In a sane clime, ministries, departments and agencies of the government are supposed to work in sync to ensure that nobody shortchanges the federal government, but from reports we get from AMCON, it is obvious that they are facing frustrations from not just the obligors but from the judiciary, as well as ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government. There is no reason why that should happen in a decent country,” he added.

“The national assembly would, in no distant time, organise another retreat which would involve about six critical stakeholders to discuss, in great details, the strategy that would be adopted to ensure that Nigeria recovers its money, which some heartless obligors owe the country, and for which they are hiding under all manners of trickery to evade repayment.”

Nwokolo, however, commended the leadership of AMCON for their resolve to persistently chase the debtors, “some of whom feel they are bigger than the country.”

He further said since the AMCON Act has been amended and already signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, the national assembly will continue to strengthen the laws of the country on enforcement.

He said enforcement had become critical given the tactics of the debtors, which has constrained AMCON from achieving optimum results, especially since public funds were used to buy these loans that helped prevent the systemic collapse of the banking sector in Nigeria at the time AMCON was created in 2010.

On his part, Ahmed Kuru, chief executive officer and managing director, AMCON said the commission has recovered N1.4 trillion, which comprises cash of N681 billion; property forfeiture of N279 billion, share forfeiture of N140 billion, and other strategic assets of N208 billion.

He added that a total of over N116.9 billion was recovered on Polaris EBAs from the period of acquisition to date. 

Kuru, who was represented by Matthew Coker  AMCON’s group head, asset management directorate, told the lawmakers that despite the special powers, as provided by the Act, AMCON still struggled with the implementation due to “our judicial system.”

“Honorable members, the corporation’s recovery processes at this point majorly depend on the judiciary i.e., obtaining possessory orders or orders for sale. The slow pace of our court processes and sometimes conflicting orders by the courts, especially at the federal high court (FHC), which is our court of the first instance, frustrates the recovery process. There are delays in obtaining dates in the court to hear AMCON matters,” he said.

“Deposit of judgement sum as provided for in the act is not enforced by the courts, some of the obligors are still active contractors of the government. They carry out businesses with the government with debtor company names or other pseudo names and the BOFIA Act that provided for a special tribunal on recovery and enforcements would have hastened the adjudication of our matters in court if the judiciary had constituted a task force specifically in that regard.”