Following media reports that the Supreme Court ordered the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to pay Bi-Courtney Limited the sum of N132 billion, the management of AMCON has denied any judgment to that effect.
AMCON, in a press release signed by Jude Nwauzor, head, corporate communications, which was made available to BusinessDay, said the appeal before the Supreme Court of Nigeria was only in respect of the leave granted to AMCON by the Court of Appeal to appeal as an interested party and for which the apex court held that the application ought to have been filed in the FHC first before the Court of Appeal.
“This was the sole issue submitted and determined by the Supreme Court whilst the substantive matter is still with the lower court,” the statement said.
According to AMCON, the news reported by a major daily newspaper does not represent the order of the apex court, noting that there was never an issue of any liability of AMCON before the Supreme Court.
The statement further accused Bi-Courtney of trying to tie the order to their obligation to AMCON noting that the whole matter of N132 billion is strictly a case between Bi-Courtney Limited and the Federal Government of Nigeria/Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
“The net effect of the above is that AMCON was never ordered to pay Bi-Courtney N132 billion nor any other amount and AMCON has never been a party to any of the proceedings pending at the court of Appeal,” the statement added.
AMCON maintained that Bi-Courtney, owned by Wale Babalakin, is still indebted to the Corporation in excess of N119 billion and it would continue to explore legal means to recover the said sum in the national interest and that of its bond owners.
AMCON had earlier included Bi-Courtney on the published list of its debtors, a claim which the company vehemently denied. According to Bi-Courtney, Federal High Court had in 2012 ruled that the Federal Government, AMCON’s principal, was indebted to Bi-Courtney to the tune of N132 billion.
Earlier in the week, a five-man panel of justices, led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, in a unanimous judgment upheld the appeal of Bi-Courtney against the judgment of the Court of Appeal in favour of AMCON. The apex court in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Amir Sanusi also dismissed the appeal of AMCON for being incompetent and lacking in merit.
OLUFIKAYO OWOEYE & OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN
