Senate Passes AMCON Amendment Bill to Aid Quicker Assets Disposal

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 / 08:35 PM / ByThePoint / Header Image Credit: Vanguard

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

This followed the adoption of the report of SenateCommittee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions at plenary onWednesday.

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

He said the stakeholders in their submissionssuggested 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 andlegitimate process of assets disposal.

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

"The essence of collateral is that in the event ofdefault, you lose that asset.

"What I am reading here is that in addition to seizingthat asset, AMCON want to go beyond that to every other asset or property thatis traceable to the debtor, I think I need some clarifications to that," hesaid.

President of Senate, Ahmad Lawan, however, called forvoting 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 Presidentby requesting for a division.

But the Senate President overruled them.

"When we come to legislate, we all come here with veryclear mind, that we are doing this for our country, we don't have any interestbut the national interest.

"And when majority of our colleagues here in theirjudgement 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 whatthey feel should be done to remedy a situation that requires our attention, Ithink we should allow that.

"Besides, I believe we had explanations from theCommittee members who went through all the processes, so, I believe that weshould 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 consciouslytake 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 suchasset or property was used as collateral for obtaining loan.

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The post Quickerassets disposal: Senate passes AMCON amendment bill first appeared in ThePointng.com on April 28, 2021.