Speed Up AMCON Cases, Dongban-Mensem Tells Judges

The President of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, has asked judicial officers to speed up cases involving the Asset Management Company (AMCON) and its obligors who are pay pay off their debts.

Dongban-Mensem who at the weekend and was supported in this position by the Administrator of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Justice R.P.I Bosimo, who however maintained that that justice must be dispensed within the ambit of the law.

The justices were speaking at the just concluded two-day Annual Seminar for Honourable Justices of the Courts of Appeal, which started on Friday in Abuja.

The event, which ended late on Saturday was jointly organised by the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and Legal Academy (LA) with the full complement of AMCON management in attendance.

Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON also reiterated the fact that AMCON, which presently has pilled-up legal issues in different courts with its obligors said non-collection of the debts, which is in the excess of N5trillion would have negative effect on the national resources.

Kuru expressed appreciation to the Nigerian judiciary for sustaining the AMCON Task Force in the four divisions of the Court of Appeal to ensure a fast track of AMCON appeals. He said no one can over emphasise the important role the judiciary plays in national development.

Presently AMCON owes more than N4trn to the central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which could even rise to almost N7trn by 2024 at the current rate of inflation, which is why there is a dire need for all sister agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria to join forces to ensure that the economic saboteurs who intend to cripple the banking sector before AMCON was set up are compelled to repay the humongous debt that is weighing down the Nigerian economy.

While welcoming participants to the seminar, Justice Bozimo who threw more light in the expectations of the judiciary, which she argued will enable AMCON is to succeed said, “The role of the judiciary in the execution of AMCON mandate cannot be overemphasised. This is understandable considering that the distinguished bench is indispensable to the realisation of the enormous powers conferred on the Corporation by the AMCON Act.

“It is through these interactions that the judiciary will be sensitised on the complex role AMCON plays at ensuring the sustenance of the financial system stability in Nigeria. The level of financial stability currently enjoyed in the country is solely attributable to the role played by AMCON in offloading toxic portfolios from the balance sheets of banks thus enabling the banks to perform their intermediating role in the macro-economy.”

According to her, viewing the peculiarities, uniqueness and the unconventional nature of the AMCON regime, it is evident that AMCON is bound to confront challenges and difficulties in its daily efforts to realise its mandate. Justice Bozimo added that it was in order to assuage these challenges that the National Judicial Institute ensures that the judiciary especially the Hounourable Judges are sensitised and provided with updates that have to do with the AMCON regime at all times.

Furthermore, she said, “AMCON intervention in the economy at the time it was set up by the Federal Government ensured the integrity of banks and saved their employees from sudden and untimely disengagement. In other words, with the establishment of AMCON, Nigerian banks were saved from imminent collapse and their employees secured from retrenchment.”

In her own address, Justice Dongban-Mensem while welcoming participants to the seminar also recalled that the 2007-2009 global financial crisis had severe impact on the economies of many countries, including developing economies like Nigeria’s, which was why AMCON was set up. She said that the Corporation having made sure that the financial system in Nigeria did not collapse, now was the time for all sister agencies of government to ensure AMCON recovers its outstanding huge debt from its recalcitrant obligors who incidentally are exploring judicial technicalities to hold on.

She said, “Although Nigerian banks were restructured prior to the financial crisis through consolidation, the restructuring did not shield Nigerian banks from the effects of the crises. In fact, the crisis further exposed other lapses in the system that needed to be addressed in order to prevent total collapse. The Nigerian government responded by establishing AMCON to help in stimulating recovery of the Nigerian banking system through buying non-performing assets of troubled bank.

“Eight factors were primarily responsible for the crisis in Nigeria. They include macro-economic instability caused by large and sudden capital inflows, major failures in corporate governance in banks, lack of investor and consumer sophistication, inadequate disclosure and transparency about the financial position of banks, critical gaps in regulatory framework and regulations, uneven supervision and enforcement, unstructured governance and management processes at the CBN/and weaknesses in the business environment.”

Insisting that the judiciary must support AMCON to recover the debt, Justice Dongban-Mensem added, “In the wake of a financial crisis, banks found themselves saddled with plethora of defaulting loans. In addition to causing default, the crisis typically led to depreciation in the value of securities created against these defaulting loans thereby leaving banks with an unfortunate inability to recoup their losses.

“Having tied up large amount of capital in Non-Performing Loans, and having lost confidence in the ability of the borrowers to repay the debts, banks were unable and possibly unwilling to maintain the level of lending required to maintain a vibrant economy. This in turn led to higher interest rates and an inability to perform the bank’s basic function of financial intermediation i.e. the pooling of savings and lending for some interest rate returns,”