Barely hours after teaming up with other eminent Nigerians to set up a third force envisioned to rescue the country from slipping further down, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), on Wednesday said it had confiscated the palatial mansion of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, a two-time governor of Kwara State in Ilorin, the state capital, over a staggering indebtedness of nearly ₦5bn.
Other assets of the former governor, which the Court granted AMCON possession over include: No 13, Alhaji Masha Road, Surulere; No. 9 Wharf, Apapa, Lagos; Plot 3632, Cadastral Zone E27 of Apo, Abuja; Plot 4115, Cadastral Zone F14 of Bazango, Abuja; Plot 8502, Cadastral Zone E31 of Carraway Dallas, Abuja; Plot 494, Cadastral Zone E31 of Carraway Dallas, Abuja; Plot 719, Cadastral Zone E23 of Kyami, Abuja; and any other landed property in any place that may be found within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
A statement by Jude Nwauzor, spokesman of the commission said the seizure followed an order by Justice Abdullah Muhammad Liman of the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, in addition to freezing of the bank accounts of the former governor and his two companies- Trans Properties and Investment Limited and Trans It Consulting Limited in Suit No: FHC/L/AMC/01/2021.
In compliance with the court order, AMCON said it had through the law firm of Robert Ohuoba & Co, one of its leading Asset Management Partners (AMPs) who also received protective orders from the court, took possession of the mansion located on Abdulfatah Street, GRA, Ilorin, Kwara State.
Nwauzor lamented that despite holding highly exalted political offices in the land, the ex-governor remained recalcitrant over the repayment of his loans that were purchased from the former Intercontinental Bank, FinBank and Bank PHB during the first phase of Eligible Bank Assets in line with its mandate under the AMCON Act.
Efforts to peacefully resolve the loan were frustrated by the former governor who remained recalcitrant, leaving AMCON no other choice than to seek justice in court, he added, beginning from asset tracing on Ahmed. The exercise further revealed nine properties of the obligor in Kwara, Lagos states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, which the Corporation has plans to enforce upon. This asset tracing exercise, it continued is in line with “Section 49 (1) of the AMCON Act 2019 (As Amended), which states that: 49 (1) where the corporation has reasonable cause to believe that a debtor or debtor company is the bonafide owner of any movable or immovable property, it may apply to the Court, before or at the time of filing of an action for debt recovery or other like action or at any time after the filing of an action, and before or after the service of the originating process by which such action is commenced on the debtor or debtor company, by motion ex-parte for an interlocutory order granting possession of the property to the Corporation pending the hearing and determination of the debt recovery or other action to abide the decision in such action.
