THE Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) got an ally yesterday in the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in its bid to recover over N5 trillion from 13, 000 debtors.
It was learnt that 350 of the 13,000 debtors owe 80 per cent of the trapped N5 trillion owed the corporation.
ICPC Chairman Prof Bolaji Owasanoye said the commission will collaborate with the corporation to recover the debts.
He spoke while receiving the Board and Management of AMCON, led by the Corporation’s Board Chairman, Muiz Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Owasanoye, who received the AMCON delegation at the ICPC headquarters, described the huge debt profile as sobering, especially as the figure represents about 50 per cent of Nigeria’s budget for this year.
He said the situation had become an existential challenge for the country since the few people who are holding the country to ransom are still walking free and waxing strong in the society.
Considering the positive impact, the funds will have on the economy if recovered, Owasanoye said ICPC and sister agencies to partner AMCON and support the debt recovery drive.
He, however, said that the ICPC was ready to work with Ahmed Lawan Kuru, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON and the Board members to recover as much of these debts as possible.
Recalling that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had also raised concerns over the huge debt in a similar forum, the ICPC chairman said the commission would be interested in tracing the transactional history of the loans, especially the high profile ones, with a view to establishing any irregularity, which could have contributed to its hard-core nature, with obligors refusing to pay.
He said: “We have to be practical in our approach. Something needs to be done and very fast too, given the approaching AMCON sunset because this is public funds we are talking about here.
“We need AMCON and ICPC to work closer and develop a strategy that would work. We need the public to know the opportunity cost of the huge debt to the Nigerian economy; we need to share information as sister agencies locally and internationally and treat this matter as a last lap race by setting up a joint task-force to deal with this sobering issue.”
The ICPC boss believed that other will be deferred from taking loans and not paying if AMCON obligors are made to face the music.
Owansanoye said: “If these matters are not properly challenged and well treated, we can predict based on history that these set of people or their clones would repeat this circle of borrowing and would tell you that in the past, some people borrowed and defaulted and nothing happened. So, something has to be done.”
Dr. Banire, who led the delegation including AMCON Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Kuru, highlighted some of the high-profile obligors of the Corporation, including some 350 individuals that account for 80 per cent of the entire debt obligation.
He reiterated the fact that AMCON would in its lifespan, need the collaboration of the ICPC to go after these obligors, “especially since AMCON on its own does not have the powers to invite, arrest or prosecute obligors, as the only option open to AMCON remains the court”.
