The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) may begin to seize the assets of debtor firms as the Senate on Wednesday passed its amendment bill.
The amended bill empowers the AMCON to take possession, manage or sell all properties discovered to be owned by debtors irrespective of whether or not such assets or property had been used as a collateral for obtaining the loan that had become bad debt.
The passage of the bill followed the consideration of a report by the Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions.
The bill would also enable the corporation to try financial related matters at the Special Tribunal established by the BOFIA 2020.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central), in his presentation said the committee engaged with stakeholders such as AMCON, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; Central Bank of Nigeria; and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The lawmaker added that the stakeholders in their submissions pushed for AMCON to be empowered to take possession, manage, foreclose or sell, transfer, assign or otherwise of property used as security for eligible bank assets among others.
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The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta Central), during the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill sought to know the rationale behind the recommendation of the Committee in clause two, which empowered AMCON to take possession of assets outside of those used as collateral in obtaining a loan request.
He said, “The essence of collateral, is that in the even of default, you lose that asset. What I am reading here is that in addition to seizing that asset, they (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.”
Another lawmaker, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan (PDP, Akwa-Ibom North East), argued that AMCON shouldn’t be allowed to have access to other assets that had not been presented for the facility.
However, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, called for voting on the contentious clause, which eventually was adopted by lawmakers in the majority, following Lawan’s ruling.
After the passage of the bill, Senators Bassey Akpan and Chukwuka Utazi, while relying on a Point of Order put forward by the former, contested the ruling of the Senate President by requesting for a division.
Senator George Thompson Sekibo (PDP, Rivers East), while citing the Senate rules, observed that, “It will be out of order to reconsider any specific question, upon which the Senate has come to a conclusion during the current session, except upon a substantive motion or decision.”
“All the discussion we are making on it now is of no value, they are not supposed to be recorded because we have come to a decision on it. It may be wrongly or rightly, but we have ended it,” Sekibo added.
The Senate President, thereafter, ruled Senator Akpan’s call for a division out of order, against the backdrop of the provision of the Senate Rule cited by Sekibo.
