Debt recovery: AMCON Amendment Act 2019 requires enforcement – CJN
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon. Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad CFR has called for the enforcement of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Amendment Act 2019.
In a statement by Jude Nwauzor, Head Corporate Communications of AMCON, Muhammad said that a law cannot be effective if such a law is not enforced.
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Justice Muhammad also clarified that he never faulted the Act, which President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law on August 7, 2019, contrary to certain media reports, which made headlines on Wednesday.
Rather, the CJN lent his voice to that of other well-meaning Nigerians in congratulating the management of AMCON, members of the National Assembly for their boldness in amending the Act, and all Nigerians who will ultimately be the beneficiaries of the amendment, should AMCON recover the huge indebtedness owed the corporation by its obligors through the instrumentality of the amended AMCON Act.
The CJN made these declarations when the AMCON CEO, Mr Ahmed Lawan Kuru when a delegation of some senior officials of the AMCON to the Supreme Court.
He said “What now remains is for enforcement. The law may be there, but the difficulty may be in enforcement and especially in your own case where the debt is financially related, tied to properties and so on.
“The task before you is not a small one, you have a lot of responsibilities and I am certainly sure that with the kind of personalities we have here, particularly with the leadership as it will not be a difficult task for you to leverage the amended Act to sanitise whatever was wrong before you people were appointed.
“The Supreme Court will continue to cooperate with you, and we love this sort of interaction with you…,” the CJN stated.
Kuru while briefing the CJN earlier said that the over N5.4trillion debt owed AMCON will eventually become the burden of the federal government and by extension Nigerian taxpayers,
He highlighted the different challenges of AMCON in its debt recovery drive, which necessitated AMCON to put machinery in motion and worked with the National Assembly to amend the Act.
He also told the CJN that AMCON would need the support of the judiciary to resolve the debt obligation before the sunset because obligors of AMCON are working hard to stretch AMCON to the sunset period.
