We will work with Senate to ensure quick passage of AMCON Bill – Reps

Barely one week after the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions called on President Muhammadu Buhari to issue an Executive Order on seizure of assets of persons indebted to Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Jones Chukwudi Onyereri says in Kano State that the House would work with the Senate for a quick passage of the AMCON amendment Bill, which will ensure the Corporation gets all needed support from the National Assembly to meet its mandate.
Onyereri, who was addressing his colleagues in Kano at the opening of a three-day retreat, said given the sunset date of AMCON, which he stated was created by the government not to operate in perpetuity, the National Assembly, the executive and the judiciary must ensure that the recovery agency of government meets its obligation within the expected and acceptable time frame.
He said, “Earlier this year, we had a public hearing and a technical session on the AMCON amendment Bill. The Report on the Bill is out and will soon be presented before the House.
“This shows our commitment in ensuring that AMCON gets all the support it can get from the National Assembly in carrying out its mandate. This Bill is very important and we promise to work with the Senate in ensuring a quick passage of the Bill. As we are all aware, AMCON was not created to exist in perpetuity.
“There is a sunset date for AMCON and it is expected to have achieved its mandate before the sunset date. Therefore, and more importantly, we are here to interact with AMCON to see how we can further help in making sure that AMCON achieves this mandate for the common good of the country.”
According to Onyereri, the lawmakers are happy that AMCON as an interventionist institution of the Federal Government, especially under its present management, has performed above board, but are worried that the Corporation is often constrained by institutional and legal stumbling blocks that have continued to hinder them from achieving optimum results especially since public funds were used to buy these loans that helped prevent the EFIs from going under.
As a matter of public urgency, he stated that AMCON needs to recover these monies, just as there is need to sensitize the courts on the need for speedy resolution of AMCON cases.
In his remark, Ahmed Kuru, managing director/CEO of AMCON, who did not hide the fact that AMCON needs support, informed members of the House Committee that obligors of the Corporation were getting bolder by the day and employing all kinds of tricks to tie AMCON up in court.
He said AMCON today had over 3,000 cases, and counting in different courts across the country with obligtors  who have the means to pay; are still doing business with other names but have vehemently refused to pay what they owe AMCON. He therefore said that AMCON having achieved remarkable milestones in the last seven and half years of its creation, is willing to deliver even more if given the needed support from all key stakeholders such as the legislature, the judiciary, the executive among others.