Senate Passes Amended AMCON Bill, Okays Seizure Of Debtors’ Assets

The Senate has passed the Asset Management Corporation of
Nigeria (AMCON) Amendment Bill.

This followed the adoption of the report of Senate Committee on
Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions at plenary on
Wednesday.

Presenting the report, Sen. Uba Sani, Chairman of the Committee,
said the committee engaged stakeholders including AMCON, Ministries
of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Central Bank of
Nigeria(CBN) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC)
before arriving at its conclusion.

He said the stakeholders in their submissions suggested that
AMCON be empowered to take possession, manage, sell, transfer,
assign property used as security for eligible bank assets among
others.

This, he said would provide for a quicker, easier and legitimate
process of assets disposal.

Deputy President of Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege at the
clause-by-clause consideration of the bill sought clarification on
some provisions.

“The essence of collateral, is that in the event of default, you
lose that asset.

”What I am reading here is that in addition to seizing that
asset, AMCON want to go beyond that to every other asset or
property that is traceable to the debtor, I think I need some
clarifications to that,” he said.

President of Senate, Ahmad Lawan, however, called for voting on
the bill, which was adopted by majority of the lawmakers.

However, Sen. Bassey Akpan and Sen. Chukwuka Utazi, while
relying on a Point of Order contested the ruling of the Senate
President by requesting for a division.

But the Senate President overruled them.

“When we come to legislate, we all come here with very clear
mind, that we are doing this for our country, we don’t have any
interest but the national interest.

“And when majority of our colleagues here in their judgement
feel that this is the right thing to do, that’s the majority view,
unless we have any cause to reverse ourselves.

“If the majority of Senators say that this is what they feel
should be done to remedy a situation that requires our attention, I
think we should allow that.

“Besides, I believe we had explanations from the Committee
members who went through all the processes, so, I believe that we
should let it go,” he said.

Lawan added: “Let the people go to court to test it, but our
hope and desire is for AMCON to be able to recover huge sums of
money, trillions that people have taken and now is on the head of
Nigerians.

“And, it is criminal, really. People will consciously take
money, I will advise that we stick to our decision.”

Recall that the bill empowered AMCON to among others, take
possession, manage or sell property traced to debtors, whether or
not such asset or property was used as collateral for obtaining
loan.

The Senate has passed the Asset Management Corporation of
Nigeria (AMCON) Amendment Bill.

This followed the adoption of the report of Senate Committee on
Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions at plenary on
Wednesday.

Presenting the report, Sen. Uba Sani, Chairman of the Committee,
said the committee engaged stakeholders including AMCON, Ministries
of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Central Bank of
Nigeria(CBN) and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC)
before arriving at its conclusion.

He said the stakeholders in their submissions suggested that
AMCON be empowered to take possession, manage, sell, transfer,
assign property used as security for eligible bank assets among
others.

This, he said would provide for a quicker, easier and legitimate
process of assets disposal.

Deputy President of Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege at the
clause-by-clause consideration of the bill sought clarification on
some provisions.

“The essence of collateral, is that in the event of default, you
lose that asset.

”What I am reading here is that in addition to seizing that
asset, AMCON want to go beyond that to every other asset or
property that is traceable to the debtor, I think I need some
clarifications to that,” he said.

President of Senate, Ahmad Lawan, however, called for voting on
the bill, which was adopted by majority of the lawmakers.

However, Sen. Bassey Akpan and Sen. Chukwuka Utazi, while
relying on a Point of Order contested the ruling of the Senate
President by requesting for a division.

But the Senate President overruled them.

“When we come to legislate, we all come here with very clear
mind, that we are doing this for our country, we don’t have any
interest but the national interest.

“And when majority of our colleagues here in their judgement
feel that this is the right thing to do, that’s the majority view,
unless we have any cause to reverse ourselves.

“If the majority of Senators say that this is what they feel
should be done to remedy a situation that requires our attention, I
think we should allow that.

“Besides, I believe we had explanations from the Committee
members who went through all the processes, so, I believe that we
should let it go,” he said.

Lawan added: “Let the people go to court to test it, but our
hope and desire is for AMCON to be able to recover huge sums of
money, trillions that people have taken and now is on the head of
Nigerians.

“And, it is criminal, really. People will consciously take
money, I will advise that we stick to our decision.”

Recall that the bill empowered AMCON to among others, take
possession, manage or sell property traced to debtors, whether or
not such asset or property was used as collateral for obtaining
loan.