The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria has approached the judicial arm of the country to enable it to access bank details of its debtors, after been given the power to do so under the AMCON (Amendment) Act 2019, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Mr Ahmed Kuru, said he was working with government agencies to recover the over N5.4tn outstanding debt in the hands of a few Nigerians.
Kuru said, “The Act had also granted permission to place bank account of debtors or the like under surveillance by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court; access debtor’s computer systems for the purpose of locating debtor’s funds by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court;
“Permits AMCON the right to obtain access to debtor’s banking, financial and commercial information and Bank Verification Number from banks by ex-parte order of the Federal High Court.
It could as well impose an obligation on the Federal Government and Federal Ministries departments and Agencies to seek AMCON’s clearance before contracting with or making payments to recalcitrant debtors on AMCON debtor list.
Aside from collaborating with the likes of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission; Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit; Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Central Bank of Nigeria; as well as Ministry of Justice, it stated that Kuru had continued to link up with the judiciary whom he said must strongly support AMCON to achieve the recovery expectations of the federal government.
The AMCON chief executive led a delegation of AMCON officials on a strategic visit to Nigeria’s Court of Appeal recently where they met with the President Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, and other justices of the court.
He told the justices that the new Act had expanded the definition of the obligors of AMCON to include the directors meaning that AMCON would more than ever before need the support of the judiciary, especially the Federal High Court, which was AMCON’s court of first instance, and most importantly, the Court of Appeal if the corporation stood the chance of recovering the over N5.4tn owed it by obligors before the sunset.
