The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja in Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CV/269/2022 in the case between the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) vs Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim has ruled for a stay of all proceedings including the contempt proceedings initiated at the trial court against AMCON MD, Mr. Ahmed Kuru pending the hearing, and determination of the substantive appeal.
The application for stay was argued on behalf of AMCON by the Corporation defence Counsel, A.U. Mustapha SAN & Co on March 30, 2022, and after listening to the arguments, the Court of Appeal delivered its ruling on Friday April 22, 2022.
With that ruling, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim and Co have been again barred from executing the said contempt proceedings order he obtained.
Recall that Jimoh Ibrahim, NICON Investment Limited, NICON Insurance Limited, Nigerian Reinsurance Corporation owe the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) a whopping N69.4billion that has necessitated multiple litigation.
AMCON over the years had tried all reasonable and peaceful resolution strategies to recover the debt from Mr. Ibrahim to no avail.
As a responsible debt recovery agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria, AMCON approached the Federal High Court (FHC) in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/760/2021 to seek justice, and accordingly received an order of the trial court to take over the businesses of Mr. Ibrahim. AMCON further received the backing of the trial court to appoint a Receiver/Manager to oversee the businesses on behalf of AMCON.
Following the trial court’s ruling, Mr. Ibrahim, procured a court order on March 9, 2022, to commence contempt proceedings against the Ahmed Kuru-led AMCON Executive Management, which led AMCON to challenge the said ruling by filling Notice of Appeal before the Court of Appeal on March 14, 2022.
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. AMCON is however not deterred to recover the outstanding N69.4billion debt owed it by Mr. Ibrahim and his companies in the interest of the Nigerian economy and the public in general.
