350 Nigerians owing AMCON over N4 trillion

Senior lawyers in the country have advised the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to seek alternative ways of recovering the huge outstanding debt of over N5trillion, owed the corporation.

AMCON says 350 Nigerians are owing 80 per cent of the total debt stock, representing over N4 trillion.

The lawyers made up of mainly eminent jurists advised the management of AMCON to explore the opportunities offered by Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) centres established by the Federal High Court.

They urged AMCON to refer some of its cases to ADR as that could provide faster ways towards recovery rather than wait endlessly for the courts, especially now that the corporation has over 3,000 court cases and counting with little time left for the corporation to wind up its activities.

The lawyers spoke at the Abuja version of the 2019 Annual Seminar for External Solicitors and Asset Management Partners (AMPs) of AMCON, which ended at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja at the weekend.

Justice Buba, who chaired one of the sessions said, “Every judge is supposed to promote ADR because it is faster. ADR was set up to help the courts. If you say you don’t want ADR, then you have to be ready to waste your time in court. It is not that the courts deliberately delay your cases, but the courts are overwhelmed by the barrage of cases before them.”

Justice Nyako, who also chaired a session, at the event co-organised by Legal Academy urged AMCON lawyers to familiarize themselves with the legal procedures before appearing in court.

According to her, if a lawyer handling AMCON case does not follow procedure, the case will not take off. But to help ease off the pressure, she added that the Federal High Court would be establishing three more ADR centres in the country.

Again, she said, “Once the ADR centres are open, I want to encourage our lawyers to refer some of these AMCON cases to the ADR centres and help decongest the courts.”

AMCON Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ahmed Lawan Kuru who was represented at the annual seminar by Mr. Aminu Ismail, an Executive Director of Operations at AMCON had earlier in his welcome speech lamented the huge outstanding debt of over N5trillion, owed the corporation.

He said the debt would eventually become a burden to the Federal Government of Nigeria if at the end of AMCON’s assignment the debt was not recovered.  He urged AMCON lawyers to sit up especially in the face of hard fighting obligors.

“We have noticed increased incidences of obligors taking advantage of the appeal process to deny us the benefit of favourable judgments obtained. Going forward, we should be conscious of the availability of the opportunity to request the courts to order litigants to deposit judgment consideration with the court registrars. This will mitigate the practice of obligors deliberately dragging their matters in court,” Kuru said.