Caption: Benedict Daminabo, Group Head, Asset Management who represented the Managing Director/CEO of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru (middle) flanked by Mrs Rukevwe Smatt-Oni, Head, Asset Management Partners (AMPs) Enforcement (left) and Mrs Ibironke Ifederu, who represented the Group Head of Enforcement, Mr Joshua Ikioda at the events…in Lagos at the weekend.
Ahmed Lawan Kuru, the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), in two separate engagements urged External Solicitors, and Receivers as well as Asset Management Partners (AMPs) in Lagos, at the weekend to intensify efforts at recovering its outstanding N4tr debt.
The AMCON CEO who was represented at the interactive sessions by Benedict Daminabo, the Group Head, Asset Management Directorate, reminded them to view the AMCON recovery mandate as a serious national assignment, as the corporation has a sunset period.
He stressed the need for them to apply speed in the collective recovery assignment, because the implication of failure to recover the debt is that if “at sunset AMCON is unable to recover the huge debt of over N4tr, it becomes the debt of the Federal Government of Nigeria for which taxpayers’ monies will be used to settle.”
This means, he continued according to a statement by Jude Nwauzor, spokesman of the corporation, “that the public will be made to pay for the recklessness of only a few individuals who continue to take advantage of the loopholes in our laws to escape their moral, and legal obligations to repay their debts.
“We should not allow a few individuals to escape with our commonwealth. And we want to do it within the confines of the law,” he added, acknowledging the positive debt recovery history of AMCON, which cannot be fully told by chroniclers of financial and economic history in Nigeria without some critical stakeholders such as AMCON Solicitors and indeed the entire Nigeria judiciary as well as Receivers; and the Asset Management Partners (AMPs) that have become major tools in the recovery efforts of AMCON.
He described the engagement, which is AMCON’s first major interaction with stakeholders in 2023 in Lagos as very important, and strategic to the recovery efforts of AMCON.
Continuing, he said the corporation values its “relationship with all our stakeholders, and we will continue to interact, share experiences and brainstorm on the best ways for the Corporation to succeed in this national assignment. Feedbacks received from interactions with our various stakeholders’ overtime, and particularly from Honourable Judges from the various Courts necessitate continuous training and retraining of our stakeholders especially as it relates to challenges encountered during filling processes in Court and enforcing AMCON’s rights on obligors’ assets.
“It is pertinent to mention that we have had course to disengage some of our Receivers and External Solicitors due to non-performance. The same thing applies to our AMPs who are not performing optimally. However, we strongly believe that majority of our stakeholders have shown impressive resourcefulness in reaching obligors who have not been reached before now. Also, their ability to trace assets of obligors has been quite impressive. Therefore, it is our hope that our external solicitors and Receivers, and AMPs would keep the on-going momentum so as to achieve more recovery milestone.”
He also expressed great concern about the frequency of adjournment of AMCON debt recovery matters on several occasions due to non-appearance of its lawyers, which has remained a source of embarrassment within the judicial space.
“We are also worried about the number of assets that are been abandoned by our Receivers. These actions are causing the Corporation so much embarrassment, especially as we know these assets had been entrusted in the hands of the Receivers. We therefore urge you to adhere to the sanctity of contract we have with you. Treat our matters with utmost professionalism, diligence, commitment, and duty of care,” he lamented further.
There were also presentations at the engagements organised by the Dr Fatihu Abba-led Legal Academy, from Mitchell Aghatise who represented Muyiwa Balogun of the firm of Olaniwun Ajayi; Dr Danjuma Umar, Head, of Receiverships, AMCON; Robert Odihi from Dele Oye & Associates, Abuja; Godwin Omoaka, SAN, a Senior Partner in the Dispute Resolution practice group of Templars Barristers and Solicitors; Mrs. Rukevwe Smatt-Oni, Head of Department, AMP Enforcement; Brian Ike-Echie of AMCON’s Legal Department; and Aisha Abioye from the IT Department of AMCON.
