AMCON says sealed Enugu girls school owing N7.6bn

 

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has said that the all-girls Providence High School, Enugu, sealed by its personnel was owing the corporation over N7.6 billion.

AMCON denied that it stormed the school with over 50 mobile policemen and locked in 344 female students and staff members of the school while it sealed up the facility.

In a statement issued Sunday by its Head of Corporate Communication, Jude Nwuzor, AMCON explained: “The management of the embattled school is using sensational journalism to raise false alarm. 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 N7.6billion, which is the main issue.

“As far as AMCON and records are concerned the property where the school is located belongs to Ferdinand Property Investment Limited. The company several years back took loan from UBA Plc and gave Corporate Guarantee in respect of the $2.9m AFDB loan granted to Ferdinand Oil Mills Limited in 1989.

“All the loans remained unliquidated resulting in AMCON acquiring the loan. The order and the 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.”

READ: AMCON storms girls school, seals facility with 344 boarding students

Media reports, which claimed that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has detained 344 female students of Providence High School, located on Independence Layout in Enugu, Enugu State is fake news according to a statement AMCON released at the weekend.

Nwuzor further clarified that AMCON does not shut down schools because the corporation understands the strategic importance of that sector to the country. He said Providence High School was not the first time AMCON was having to enforce on a school.

He said the process of enforcement entailed placing AMCON’s possessory sign board on the wall of the school and on the gate wondering how writing on the fence of the school, which was outside the school premises and placing a small AMCON sign amounted to disrupting school activities and detaining the students.

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