Senator Uba Sani, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other judicial institutions has denounced that prominent Nigerians were “thwarting” the effort of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to recover the 4.4 trillion dollars owed. to the corporation.
He stated this at a stakeholder symposium on “Consolidating the Effectiveness of the Asset Recovery Model Adopted by AMCON” held Friday at Zuma Rock Resort Niger State.
According to Sani, the road has not always been easy for AMCON and he says that for a long time, AMCON has been on the receiving end of well-planned and orchestrated acts of economic sabotage.
“Of the N4.4 billion that we are trying to recover, around 350 people in this country are responsible. This is approximately 83 percent of the debt.
“This is very worrying. This means that powerful Nigerians are the ones who are unwilling to repay these loans. They have been employing different strategies and tactics to stop repaying loans amounting to billions of Naira.
“Many high ranking Nigerians are not willing to support AMCON because most of those people are the ones who have taken this money from the banks and of course you know that the government came in to set up Amcon to prevent the banks from collapsing.
“But unfortunately, because of what is happening, AMCON is finding it very difficult because those people are Nigerians in a privileged position, they try to thwart AMCON’s effort through the judiciary and that is what we are looking for.”
Sani assured the agency that his committee with other relevant Senate committees would do everything in their power to help AMCON recover the N4.4 billion owed to the company.
“It is the taxpayers’ money that the government used to bail out the banks; of course to try to support the official sector so that it does not go down.
Unfortunately, they face a lot of frustration. We will do everything possible in the interest of our country and the protection of this country’s economy and to help AMCON succeed, ”said Sani.
AMCON Managing Director Alhaji Ahmed Lawan, while praising President Muhammadu for passing the AMCON 2021 Amendment Bill, said this would further enhance the corporation’s recovery powers in many respects.
He said that the corporation has so far recovered more than N1.4 billion, which comprises; cash N665 billion, property forfeiture N278 billion, assets sold N141 billion, share forfeiture N139 billion and other strategic assets N207 billion.
Regarding other challenges faced, Kuru said that the slowness of the judicial processes and, at times, conflicting orders, frustrated the recovery process.
Lawan further said that the judiciary should be encouraged to respect the provisions of the law that requires them to expedite the cases before them and issue a certificate of judgment on the property.
In a related development, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr. Bello Hassan, said that the government wanted to provide confidence in the fictitious system.
This, he said, was a fictitious safety net to promote the stability of the fictitious system and support economic growth and development.
“The NDIC has taken important steps to ensure the safety of Nigerian banks and the protection of depositors, in accordance with its mandate.
“The Corporation had initiated supervisory measures for digital banks, as well as the improvement of existing consumer protection measures, especially with regard to digital deposit, through greater collaboration with other actors in the safety net” .
Source: NAN
