A new task force has been set up to ensure the effective recovery of over N5 trillion debts owed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President Laolu Akande has said.
In a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja, he said the directive for the renewed effort for the recovery of debts was given by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during a meeting with board members and management of AMCON and selected heads of government agencies at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
This development, our reporter gathered, has sent jitters down the spine of some current and former federal lawmakers, incoming and ex-ministers, as well as some business moguls, believed to be mostly behind the huge debt.
Although the agency would not name names, it however said the bulk of the N5trillion debt was being owed by just 20 individuals and organisations.
Moving against the debtors however, Osinbajo said the agencies involved in the recovery are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Federal Ministry of Transport and heads of AMCON.
He said the task force would be working to develop and implement new strategies that would ensure government’s determination to recover the money is speedily achieved.
“The key is collaboration. We need a small team comprising these agencies to look at the next steps that we need to take, especially the criminal aspect, forfeiture, and all of that,” he said.
He said the vice president also directed the task force to look at the top 20 AMCON defaulters closely and develop a plan of action that would bring results.
AMCON chairman, Mr Muiz Banire,SAN, said almost 67 per cent of the outstanding N5 trillion debt is owed by just 20 individuals and entities.
He said the agency had been “trying its best in its attempt to recover this through the civil judicial process, but had encountered several challenges.”
What AMCON earlier said
Speaking as guest speaker at the July 2019 Breakfast Meeting of the Nigerian–American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) Thursday, AMCON Managing Director Ahmed Kuru had said some persons behind the huge bad debt presently occupy leadership positions in the country.
The worrisome aspect of the issue, Kuru stated, “unlike what happens in other clime, was that such obligors still found their way to emerge as members of the National Assembly, ministers, chairmen and women of big organisations and pro-chancellors of universities.”
“Sadly, these are the calibre of people we respect in Nigeria, but these people are not role models. How can you be a role model when you cannot honour a simple obligation? That is why I have been consistent in the call for the return of the Failed Bank Act.
“The way we are handling the issue in the country suggests that we are encouraging a lot of financial rascality. People have to be held accountable for their actions, which I believe would serve as deterrent to others.”
Kuru also hinted that the agency was working with other sister agencies namely; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to come up with detailed television documentary on notorious and recalcitrant obligors of AMCON.
The documentary, he said, would document in a permanent format for generations yet unborn to know “the so-called big men and women that are behind the over N5 trillion debt burden, which AMCON is battling to recover.”