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Tag: AMCON

  • Save us from AMCON, G.Cappa begs court

    Save us from AMCON, G.Cappa begs court

    A construction company, G.Cappa Plc, yesterday prayed the Federal High Court in Lagos to order policemen who sealed off its offices to leave immediately.

    It asked the court to discharge an ex-parte order granted the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) which took over the company over an alleged unpaid N1.2billion debt.

    G.Cappa said AMCON did not follow due process in executing the order.

    Besides, it said the ex-parte order made by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke on May 14 had elapsed “by effluxion of time” as at when the order was executed on August 27.

    It sought an order discharging the ex-parte order, and prayed the court to direct that its bank account be unfrozen.

    G.Cappa’s lawyer Mr Taiwo O. Taiwo said his client does not owe the sum claimed by AMCON. Rather, he said the Federal Government owes G.Cappa.

    “We’re under serious hardship. We can’t go to our office because the police have sealed it up. This is a company that employs so many people. We have no choice than to come to court to save us from those who think they have so much power,” Taiwo said.

    In a supporting affidavit, he applicant said: “The execution of the ex-parte order was without regard to the interest of the defendant’s tenants at the two premises occupied by policemen.”

    AMCON had taken possession of the company’s property at Kano Street, Borno Way, Ebutte Metta, and at 8, Taylor Road, Iddo, Bond Line, Lagos.

    The corporation said G.CAPPA approached UBA Plc for working capital to the tune of N880million as overdraft, short term advance, direct credit, bonds and guarantees for corporate restructuring, which were granted through offer letters of April 28, 2000; April 30, 2001 and March 14, 2002.

    The property was said to have been used to secure the loan, which was bought over by AMCON.

    “At the expiration of the facility, the defendant failed, neglected and/or refused to liquidate its indebtedness to it, leaving an outstanding balance of N1,207,296,646.45 being the outstanding balance as at the 4th day of June, 2014,” AMCON said.

    But G.CAPPA denied failing or refusing to repay the debt, saying the issue has always been that of ascertaining its exact indebtedness to UBA Plc.

    The defendant said it has made some payments to UBA amounting to N250million, adding: “The defendant is not bound to pay the sum claimed by the plaintiff because that is not the actual amount it owed the plaintiff.”

    G.CAPPA has also filed a counter-claim against AMCON and UBA, saying that the overdraft facility it took from UBA was N250million by commercial paper and that it owes the bank only N86million.

    It said UBA unilaterally varied terms of the agreement to the detriment of G.CAPPA, which adversely affected its business.

    Justice Mohammed Yunusa will rule today on G.Cappa’s application.

  • N1.2b ‘debt’: AMCON ‘takes over company’s property’

    In a bid to recover a debt of N1.2billion from G.CAPPA

    Plc, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) said it has taken possession of the company’s property at Kano Street, Borno Way, Ebutte Metta, and at 8, Taylor Road, Iddo, Bond Line, Lagos.

    It follows an order made by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos on May 14.

    The court also froze the company’s bank accounts and restrained G.CAPPA from dealing with, assigning or leasing the property to a third party pending the hearing and determination of the substantive debt recovery action.

    In a supporting affidavit sworn to by Mr Victor Igabor of AMCON’s Credit Directorate, the corporation said G.CAPPA approached UBA for working capital to the tune of N880million as overdraft, short term advance, direct credit, bonds and guarantees for corporate restructuring, which were granted through offer letters of April 28, 2000; April 30, 2001 and March 14, 2002.

    The property was said to have been used to secure the loan, which was bought over by AMCON. “At the expiration of the facility, the defendant failed, neglected and/or refused to liquidate its indebtedness to it, leaving an outstanding balance of N1,207,296,646.45 being the outstanding balance as at the 4th day of June, 2014,” AMCON said.

    But in its defence, G. CAPPA denied failing or refusing to repay the debt, saying the issue has always been that of ascertaining its exact indebtedness to UBA Plc.

    The defendant said it has made some payments to UBA amounting to N250million, adding: “The defendant is not bound to pay the sum claimed by the plaintiff because that is not the actual amount it owed the plaintiff.”

    G.CAPPA has also filed a counter-claim against AMCON and UBA, saying that the overdraft facility it took from UBA was N250million by commercial paper and that it owes the bank only N86million.

    It said UBA unilaterally varied terms of the agreement to the detriment of G.CAPPA, which adversely affected its business.

    Meanwhile, AMCOM has filed an application, urging the court to enter judgement against the company as per the N1.2billion claim.

    Justice Aneke adjourned to October 6 for hearing.

     

  • Buhari sued over AMCON board

    Buhari sued over AMCON board

    Activist-lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has filed a suit against President Muhammadu Buhari over for appointing the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) board without recourse to the Senate.
    He said the appointments, made on August 19, was in clear violation of the relevant statute setting up the agency.
    He referred to Section 10(1) (C) of the AMCON Act 2010 which provides that the board, consisting of three executive directors nominated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in consultation with the Minister of Finance, must be appointed subject to Senate confirmation.
    Adegboruwa is seeking a declaration that the President cannot appoint anyone as Executive Director of AMCON without complying with Section 10(1)C of the AMCON Act 2010.
    He prays the court to hold that the appointments, having been made without complying with the Section, is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
    The lawyer is asking for an order “nullifying, annulling, voiding, cancelling and invalidating the appointment of the Executive Directors of AMCON by the President.”
    Adegboruwa is also seeking to obtain an order of perpetual injunction restraining the persons purportedly appointed by the President from functioning or further parading themselves as AMCON’s Executive Directors.
    [news_box style=”2″ display=”tag” link_target=”_blank” tag=”AMCON” count=”2″ show_more=”on” show_more_type=”link”]
  • Oil workers shut down AMCON

    Oil workers shut down AMCON

    Activities  at the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) came to a standstill yesterday, as oil workers under the aegis of SeaWolf Oil Field, paralysed its activities.

    The disengaged workers, who barricaded the entrance to the office, were protesting the failure of AMCON to pay their entitlements which they claimed was between N5billion and N7billion.

    They lamented that despite assurance that the corporation would pay their entitlements after taking over their company-Offshore Management Services, such promises had yet to be fulfilled.

    Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Victor Ekundayo said the agreement reached with the Corporation was that their salaries be paid by AMCON following the take over of the company two years ago.

    He said,”We have had several meetings with the Ministry of Petroleum, Labour and Productivity.  Ministry of Finance had to intervene,  insisting that  AMCON pays the claims. AMCON even called us to say they will pay, yet nothing has been done.

    “AMCON took over our facility in 2013 because SeaWolf was indebted to a lot of commercial banks. They did so without settling the workers.

    “The standard in the oil and gas is that for whatever reason, workers must be paid their terminal benefits, which AMCON has refused to do.

    “Before we came here, we took our grievances to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and to the Ministry of Labour and Productivity. They all asked AMCON to pay us our entitlements.

    “In May, we met with the Managing Director, of  AMCON. He assured us that our claims will be addressed within 48 hours, yet it’s been three months and no word from them.”

    Ekundayo claimed that the delay in the payment of entitlement has resulted to the death and hospitalisation of some of his colleagues.

    He however urged the Federal Government to intervene so they could get their entitlements paid.

    When contacted, the Public Relations Officer, AMCON, Kayode Lambo, described the protest as illegal because a court injunction stopped them from doing so.

    “I cannot tell you what AMCON is doing to address the situation because the case has been taken to court and doing so will be prejudicial,” he said.

  • Court refuses AMCON’s bid to halt trial in Bi-Courtney’s suit

    The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday refused to stay proceedings in a suit by Bi-Courtney Group against the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

    Bi-Courtney is challenging some of the defendant’s powers as prescribed in the AMCON Act.

    The instant suit arose from an alleged N50billion debt, which AMCON claims Bi-Courtney, the concessionaire of the Murtala Muhammad Airport, Terminal 2 Lagos, owes it.

    The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division had dismissed AMCON’s appeal of a ruling by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court on the alleged debt.

    The judge had nullified an order appointing a former Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) President Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) as the receiver/manager over the assets of Bi-Courtney, its Chairman Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN), Chartered Investment Limited, Resort International Limited and Roygate Properties Limited.

    Justice Buba had held that the order by his colleague, Justice Okon Abang, was made in error and should not have been given when there were pending cases and subsisting orders on the same case.

    According to him, the true facts were not disclosed to Justice Abang. “This court has no doubt it has been misled,” the judge said.

    The appellate court, presided over by Justice Sidi Bage, upheld Justice Buba’s ruling. It added that the circumstances under which AMCON obtained the ex- parte order against Bi-Courtney Group amounted to an abuse of court process.

    The court resolved the issues formulated by the parties against AMCON and dismissed the appeal.

    Bi-Courtney, through its lawyer Oluseun Awonuga, filed a fresh suit against AMCON’s challenge of its powers and sought exemplary damages over the corporation’s actions concerning the debt.

    “We are contending that the actions they took against us were in bad faith,” Awonuga said yesterday while opposing the application for stay of proceedings.

    Besides, the lawyer said AMCON’s powers are “draconian” and that other debtors are in trouble if the corporation can obtain ex-parte orders to seize debtors’ property.

    “These rules are so draconian,” he said, adding that AMCON also requires debtors to pay certain fees daily until they liquidate their debts.

    AMCON’s lawyer James Ogungbamila sought to stay proceedings in the hearing pending the determination of its appeal to the Supreme Court.

    However, Awonuga opposed it, and urged the court to refuse it. He said AMCON was deliberately trying to stall proceedings.

    Ruling, Justice Mohammed Idris refused to stay proceedings because the appeal did not emanate from the case before him.

    “The application pending at the Supreme Court is not in relation to proceedings pending in this case. Sincerely, I see no reason why the application should be granted,” the judge held.

    Besides, he said there is no appeal “properly” filed before the Supreme Court yet.

    “There is nothing in the affidavit that supports the grant of this application. I see no reason why it should be granted. It fails and is hereby struck out,” Justice Idris added.

    He adjourned further hearing till tomorrow.

     

  • AMCON to publish loan defaulters’ list

    AMCON to publish loan defaulters’ list

    The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria on Monday asked loan defaulters to immediately square their accounts or it would publish their names in line with a directive by the central bank.

    The apex bank in April directed lenders to give bad debtors three months to square their accounts, otherwise they would be named in the media and barred from taking part in Nigerian currency and government debt markets, Reuters says.

    AMCON warned bad debtors on Monday that if loans remained unpaid, it will take steps to recover the debts including by legal means. It advised debtors not to assume it will forgive their indebtedness.

    It also asked bad debtors to present restructuring plans, it said in a statement.

    AMCON was set up in 2010 to absorb non-performing loans in exchange for government bonds, after the CBN injected $4 billion to rescue nine lenders from collapse six years ago.

    The apex bank has since set an upper limit of 5 percent for non-performing loan ratio for the industry.

    Before the 2009 bailout non-performing loans ratio stood in double digits.

    Top Nigerian commercial lenders including Stanbic IBTC, Diamond Bank, First Bank and Skye Bank, have all given notices to bad debtors to pay up.

    The bad bank this year said it had recovered 57 percent of bad debts, estimated around 1.8 trillion naira from over 12,000 debtors of commercial lenders in Africa’s top economy.

  • Protesters seek AMCON chairman’s sack over unpaid salaries

    Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSON), SEAWOLF branch is calling for the sack of the Chairman, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Chike Obi.

    The spokesperson of the association, Mr. Femi Akpata, who made this call on behalf of his colleagues, said for the past 22 months their salaries have not been paid.

    Akpata said since Obi did not keep his promise of paying salaries after AMCON acquired the company from its owner, he should be sacked.

    Akpata said: “He went into agreement with the staff of SEAWOLF that all liabilities should be shifted to AMCON; for 22 months now we have been waiting and nothing.

    “We have had several meetings with the ministry of Petroleum, Labour and Productivity, Ministry of Finance had to intervene with them insisting AMCON pay the claims. AMCON even called us to say they will pay since last year, yet nothing has been done.

    “As I am speaking with you, we have three of our members in the mortuary, Obi is eating well on us, we are in hunger our families are suffering, he said we should come with our claims which we did on May 18th 2015, only to hear he has been in London.”

    AMCON’s Public Relations Officers in the Abuja office, where the protest took place, refused to speak with The Nation, claiming he was not in a position to comment on the issue.

  • Oil workers invade AMCON’s office over unpaid salaries

    Oil workers invade AMCON’s office over unpaid salaries

    Oil workers acting under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG),  yesterday disrupted normal office activities at the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) headquarters in Abuja.

    Dressed in their usual oil extracting uniforms with Seawolf inscribed, the aggrieved workers protested unpaid 22 months salary arrears AMCON allegedly owed them.

    The angry workers were seen with placards which read: “AMCON enough is enough, pay us our money”, “Ministry of Labour and Productivity, tell AMCON to pay us our money”, “AMCON 48 hours have come and gone, pay us our money” and “Our children are out of school due our inability to pay school fees. Pay us our money”.

    Chairman of Seawolf branch of the union, Christian Okojie while speaking with reporters lamented that AMCON agreed to attend to them 48 hours after their initial protest.

    According to him, several letters and mails have been written to him including text messages seeking to have an audience with the management, adding that it was frustrated.

    Okojie said: “We are here to get our terminal benefits and outstanding salaries. AMCON took over our management two years ago. When they came in, they assured us that they will take care of our welfares. They only paid us two months salaries, December 2013 and January 2014.

    “Since then, they have refused to pay after making several attempts to get AMCON to a roundtable to chart a way forward for the workers.

    “We have gone to Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Ministry of Petroleum. In all the meetings we held, they asked AMCON to pay but AMCON has refused to comply.”

    In his remark, PENGASSAN Chairman Godfrey Okoloba said members of the association resolved to remain in AMCON’s premises until the Federal Government intervenes in the situation.

    “Our children are hungry, some are out of schools, in fact three of our members are in mortuary and their widows have not been taken care of for the past two months now. We don’t have anywhere to go to. We will sleep here.”

    Asked if deliberate efforts were made to meet the AMCON executive, Okoloba restated that the Chief Executive Officer of AMCON Mr. Mustapha Chike-obi met with them and promised to attend to the situation after 48 hours. However, three weeks after, AMCON was yet to reach out to them.

    However, Chike-Obi denied owing the aggrieved workers. He alleged that the workers were not genuine staff of the Offshore Management Services (OMS) but engaged through an agent.

    He said: “AMCON is trying to sell the oil rigs and payback the company so the company can pay the workers. We do not owe them. The rigs have not been working in the past six months.”

  • Oil workers dare AMCON over N3b payment

    Oil workers dare AMCON over N3b payment

    Members of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), yesterday vowed to die, if the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) fails to pay the N3 billion belonging to its members.

    Chairman of the Seawolf Branch oF NUPENG, Christian Okoji, who spoke during a protest he led to AMCON’s office inAbuja,  said AMCON had been owing the workers for 18 months, including their salaries and terminal benefits.

    He said: “Precisely December 2013, AMCON came and bought the company. So when they came, they assured us that they are going to change the system because the former management was having financial constraint. “Based on that, they came and asked us to denounce our former company and send all our personal data to them and from that moment they will be paying the salaries.”

    He stated that AMCON only paid them for two months, December 2013 and January  last year respectively.

    “We have been working, the three rigs, one of the rigs was working with Total, one with Addax and the last with Conoil. They were all working making good money. The least payment for those rigs was about  $130,000  per day. So the rigs were making so much money. At the end of the day, AMCON refused to continue the payment of salaries. So our organisation which is Nupeng called them to order to know the fate of the workers and know why AMCON has refused to pay their members

    Responding for AMCON,  its Executive Director, Credit, Abbas Mohammed Jega said Seawolf is owing AMCON and can not pay the protesters until the company pays them.

    “Now Seawolf took a loan from FirstBank and bought rigs and they couldn’t operate the rigs very well and they were losing money, they were losing contracts, they couldn’t pay back the loan to FirstBank. So FirstBank asked us to buy the loan so we bought the loan from First Bank and we called the owners of Seawolf to come and pay their loans, come and tell us how you want to pay the loan, for over a year we were looking at the figures we couldn’t agree, seawolf is not in a position to do business and to pay the loans.”

  • AMCON’s board members, others can’t buy acquired assets

    AMCON’s board members, others can’t buy acquired assets

    • Senate passes AMCON Bill

    The Senate yesterday passed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) amendment bill.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, who sponsored the bill said the amendment of the AMCON Act became necessary in order to strengthen the operations of AMCON and to make it to serve the statutory purpose for which it was created.

    The AMCON Act was enacted in 2010 to enable the Corporation to buy over toxic assets of mostly distressed banks in the country.

    The amended sections of the Act included Sections 2(3), 16(5), 34(1), 34(2), 35, 46(2), 48,60, 61 and 62 which aimed at enhancing the ability of AMCON to effectively carry out its statutory mandate.

    Otu noted that the amendment will enable and sustain the banking sector’s contribution to the economy.

    He said for instance, since the establishment of AMCON, Nigerian banks have been able to provide substantial funds towards privatisation and enabling environment for greater profitability in the key sectors of the economy such as aviation, oil and gas, manufacturing leading to a larger tax base and higher taxes to the Federal Government.

    Senate President, David Mark, had at the public hearing for the bill stressed that the amendment of AMCON Act is to clarify and remove certain ambiguities in the extant law that inhibits the operations of the corporation to carry out its mandate.

    A major thrust of the amendment is the amendment of Section 16(5) which now states that “a member of the Board or any employee of the Corporation shall not either directly or indirectly be involved in the purchase of the asset acquired by the Corporation as part of, or in pursuant of, the acquisition of an eligible bank asset or enforcement or realisation of any right relating to an eligible bank asset acquired by the Corporation.”

    Clause 4 provides for the effect of acquisition of eligible bank assets by the Corporation.

    The amendment aimed at deleting the language in Section 34(1) of the Act which inadvertently  suggested that loans related obligations of selling eligible financial institutions will pass on to AMCON with the acquisition of eligible bank assets.

    Clause 6 deals with redemption of debts securities issued by the Corporation.

    The amendment of this sub-section deletes Section 46(2) of the Act and inserts a new Part IX (61-85) immediately after Section 60 of the Act which provides for the creation of a sinking fund and matters related thereto based on: that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had already been signed between all the Deposit Money Bank (DMBs) and Central Bank of Nigeria resulting in the establishment of a Banking Sector Resolution Cost Fund;

    That since the fund had already been established and operationalised by agreement within stakeholders in the banking sector, the bill seeks to codify Industry Agreemnt;

    That based on the MoU, the DMB’s will be required to make contributions of 50 basis point of their total assets to be the fund based on their audited financial statements and N50 billion from the CBN annually for 10 years.

    Otu said the committee observed that the total contribution to the fund stood at N293.41billion as at 31st December, 2013.