The Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye on Wednesday in Abuja, said plans were afoot for a collaboration with Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, to recover N5trillion owed AMCON by obligors.
A statement issued by the Head, Corporate Communications, AMCON, Jude Nwauzor, said Prof Owasanoye made the disclosure when the Board and Management of AMCON led by its Board Chairman, Dr. Muiz Banire SAN, paid him a visit at ICPC headquarters.
While describing the huge debt profile of AMCON as sobering, especially as the figure represents about 50 per cent of Nigeria’s 2019 budget, the ICPC Chairman further said the situation “has become existential challenge for the country since the few people who are holding the country to ransom are still walking free and waxing strong in the society.”
Considering the positive impact, the funds would have in the economy if recovered, Prof. Owasanoye was quoted as saying that “the time has come for the ICPC and other relevant sister agencies to partner AMCON and support the debt recovery drive.”
He assured that the ICPC under his leadership was ready to work with the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Ahmed Lawan Kuru, and the Board members to recover as much of these debts as possible.
Recalling that the Vice President, Prof. Yomi Osinbajo had also raised concerns over the huge debt in a similar forum, the ICPC Chairman said the commission would be interested in tracing the transactional history of the different loans especially the high profile ones with a view to establishing any irregularity, which could have contributed to its hard-core nature, with obligors refusing to pay.
“We have to be practical in our approach. Something needs to be done and very fast too given the approaching AMCON sunset because this is public funds we are talking about here. We need AMCON and ICPC to work closer and develop a strategy that would work. We need the public to know the opportunity cost of the huge debt to the Nigerian economy, we need to share information as sister agencies locally and internationally and treat this matter as a last lap race by setting up a joint taskforce to deal with this sobering issue,” he added.
The statement quoted the ICPC boss as opining that “obligors of AMCON must be made to face the music, to serve as deterrent to others. If these matters are not properly challenged and well treated, we can predict based on history that these set of people or their clones would repeat this circle of borrowing and would tell you that in the past, some people borrowed and defaulted and nothing happened. So something has to be done.”
Earlier in their separate remarks, Dr. Banire who led the delegation and Kuru, AMCON managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, highlighted some of the high-profile obligors of the Corporation including some 350 individuals that account for 80 per cent of the entire debt obligation.
