Alleged N2bn Debt: Oil Firm Asks Court to Stop AMCON from Selling Assets

A Lagos based oil firm, Aquitane Oil and Gas Limited has asked a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to grant an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), or its agents from taking any step to defeat the equity of redemption in respect of No. 5/7, Kingsway Road, Ikoyi, with Lagos State Certificate Title No. 3352.

In its statement of defence and counter-claim to a suit AMCON instituted against it over alleged N2.64 billion indebtedness, the oil firm asked the court to grant an order restraining AMCON from selling or offering for sale, its tank farm located at Ibru Complex, Westminster Jetty, along Apapa-Oshodi, Ibafon, Apapa.

It equally asked the court “to award N5 billion damages in its favour.

AMCON had dragged Aquitane Oil and Gas Limited and its Managing Director, Ikechukwu Okolo, to court over a N2 billion indebtedness.

In the suit filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos, AMCON is asking the court to order the defendants to pay the sum of N2.64 billion as at June 30, 2016, which represent principal and accrued interest of 14 per cent per annum until judgment is delivered and until final liquidation to the debt.

The plaintiff in the alternative wants the court to grant it the power to sell or dispose the property at No 5, Kingsway Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, which was pledged as security for the restructured debt of N2.64 billion.

AMCON added that if the said property covered by the title No. L03352 “is not sufficient to satisfy the debt, the defendants shall jointly or severally liquidate the outstanding until the debt is satisfied.”

AMCON had released a list of its 105 debtors that have failed to reach a settlement or repayment resolution and Aquitane’s name was 58th on the list.

Okolo, however, responded to the published debtors list through a letter, denying being indebted to AMCON, adding that its name was erroneously included in the list of 105 delinquent debtors published by AMCON.

In the suit with No. FHC/L/ CS/1122/2012, AMCON, a government intervention institution created for the purpose of efficiently resolving the non-performing loan assets of banks in Nigeria, stated in its statement of claim that by its mandate under AMCON Act2010, it acquired from various banks the debt owed by the defendants and has thus acquired the right to recover the debts.