The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), on Sunday debunked media reports that it stormed the premises of Providence High School, located on Independence Layout in Enugu, Enugu State, and detained 344 female students of the school, in a bid to recover over N7.6bn in outstanding debt.

A statement by Jude Nwauzor, Head, Corporate Communications Department of AMCON, described the report that the corporation stormed the school “with over 50 mobile policemen to detain the students and their teachers” as “unsubstantiated… mischief and half truths regarding the real issues about the enforcement exercise at the school.”

Records, he recalled, show that the property where the school is located belongs to Ferdinand Property Investment Limited, which several years ago obtained a loan from UBA Plc, giving Corporate Guarantee in respect of the $2.9m AfDB loan granted to Ferdinand Oil Mills Limited in 1989.

Since the loan remained unliquidated, the statement continued, AMCON acquired it, following which “the order and originating processes were served on the school on July 16, 2016, but the school pleaded to be given time to enable them to arrange how to settle AMCON.”

Stressing that it is not the style of the corporation to “shut down schools because (its management) understands the strategic importance of that sector to the country,” he accused the management of the embattled Providence High School of employing sensational journalism so as to buy time.

As proof, Nwauzor insisted that “the gate of the school is still open, and activities are ongoing. It is a boarding school with students from across the country. How can anyone eject them? It’s all lies told to curry public sympathy and to delay the repayment of a huge debt of over N7.6bn, which is the main issue.

“This is not the first time AMCON is having to enforce on a school. Some years back a certain high-profile school in Lekki area of Lagos State was also enforced on, but AMCON did not shut down the school or detain the students until the issues were amicably settled.

“The same enforcement approach was deployed at the school in Enugu by going there to place AMCON’s possessory sign board on the wall of the school and on the gate. It is therefore difficult to understand how writing on the fence of the school, which is outside the school premises and placing a small AMCON sign amounted to disrupting school activities and detaining the students,” he stressed further.

Aside from the school authority that was approached before the signs were placed, AMCON argued further, “the students, some of whom were in their hostels and their various classes did not know that any enforcement exercise even took place.”