Again, Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja surprisingly granted the application by lawyer and businessman Jimoh Ibrahim and his firms to publish a notice of committal proceedings against the Managing Director of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, Ahmed Kuru and two other Executive Directors of AMCON.
Sources close to AMCON however told our correspondent that AMCON will appeal against the order. Jimoh Ibrahim have been in a prolonged legal battle with AMCON over a debt profile of nearly N70billion. Backed by a court order also, AMCON took over some of the leading businesses of Mr Ibrahim. As at the time of this report, AMCON has since appointed a receiver over the businesses, and has tagged him as one of their very many recalcitrant obligors, which may have infuriated the embattled businessman.
Justice Abang’s latest order is coming less than two weeks after the court granted permission to Ibrahim and `his firms` (in receivership) – NICON Investment Limited, NICON Insurance Limited and NICON Reinsurance Corporation Plc – to commence committal proceedings against the AMCON boss and Aminu Ismail and Eberechukwu Uneze, for allegedly flouting the court’s earlier orders. Justice Abang ruled that the publication constitutes proper service of Forms 48 and 49 and all other court processes to be issued in the matter.
Justice Abang even went further to dictate the two newspapers in the country where he wants Jimoh Ibrahim to publish the service. He directed that his order be published in The Nation, and The Punch newspapers. The court based its decision on the grounds that the defendants evaded personal service of the contempt proceedings. Justice Abang also maintained that the appeal filed against the previous order by the defendants did not follow the correct process.
Mr Ahmed Lawan Kuru, AMCON Managing Director/CEO
Justice Abang specifically stated that since the respondents didn’t file a motion of stay of execution on the order made of March 9, 2022, it could not operate as a stay of execution. He granted that the applicants should publish forms 48 and 49 and other court’s processes to be lawfully issued in the matter in the newspapers he pencilled down in his order.
When our Correspondent contacted Jude Nwauzor, Head of Corporate Communications Department at AMCON for his reaction over the order, he said, “I appreciate call, but as a professional colleague, I am sure you also know that you are not really being kind to me right now. This matter is not just pending in court, it is ongoing.”
It would be recall that AMCON in November 2020 following a court order seized the properties of the barrister Jimoh Ibrahim over his indebtedness, which was sold to AMCON by Union Bank as a non-performing loan in the early days of AMCON. The affected businesses of the embattled businessman include NICON Investment Limited and Global Fleet Oil and Gas Limited amongst others.
Nwauzor in a statement to the media late last year stated that the matter between Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim and AMCON has been interminable since the loan was purchased by the government debt recovery agency during the first phase of Eligible Bank Assets (EBA) purchases from Union Bank in the early days of AMCON. He told us then that AMCON is however not deterred to recover the nearly N70billion owed it by Barrister Ibrahim and his companies in the interest of the Nigerian economy and the public in general, adding that it was in desperation to subvert justice that the embattled businessman would continue to hop from one court to the other rather than engage AMCON on how to settle his debt.
