Controversy over EFCC’s invitation of AMCON boss” — News Report, January 20, 2022.

The story went on to state: “There was controversy on Wednesday (January 19, 2022) over the invitation of the Managing Director of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria, Mr Ahmed Kuru, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.”

Ordinarily, there would have been no reason to worry about EFCC invitation to another top profile individual.

They occur frequently; more for publicity than anything else, by the Commission. Nine times out of ten, that is the last the public will be informed about the matter.

This particular one should be of interest to all Nigerians because the AMCON boss and his company have exhausted all the excuses they have for not publishing the names of the 1,000 chronic debtors owing N3.96trillion.

AMCON had been forced to go through lengthy litigation to obtain a court judgment allowing it to publish the list of the debtors and to take steps to recover  debts owed to the nation.

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That includes seizing their assets, wherever they may be and getting them blacklisted by banks.

These are heavy punishments which could literally send some of Nigeria’s high profile individuals and their companies to early graves. Not surprisingly, the defaulters have been desperate in their attempts to ensure that the list is not released.

AMCON has surprisingly been co-operating with them. Instead of releasing the list to the public, AMCON took the list to the National Assembly, NASS, — obviously in a bid to buy time for the debtors.

The NASS, to its everlasting glory, directed AMCON to go ahead and publish the list weeks ago.

Incredibly, Mr Jude Nwauzor, spokesman for AMCON, in a published interaction with financial reporters, gave excuse to explain why AMCON has not published the list.

According to Nwauzor, AMCON wanted to be “reasonable” about the matter. The debt collector wanted to give the unrepentant and chronic debtors more time to rethink. It was very suspicious.

In fact, Nwauzor is lucky this is Nigeria. In Singapore, he and his bosses would have been sacked for disobeying the Executive, the Legislative and Judiciary branches of government – while being “reasonable” with debtors who are totally unreasonable.

Now, it appears we have a clue to AMCON’s inexplicable delay in publishing the list of debtors.

It would appear that some top officials of AMCON are being blackmailed by some of the debtors. According to some reports, still to be verified, the AMCON boss has been accused of selling some assets recovered at less than fair prices to cronies.

I don’t know Mr Kuru personally but his track record does not suggest he is the sort of person who will easily fall into that kind of trap.

It is quite possible that what we are witnessing are corrupt individuals fighting tooth and nail, to keep to the filthy lucre they amassed at public expense when AMCON was created to clean up the mess in the banking system.

It was the appointment of Sanusi Lamido, a banking insider, from First Bank, which exposed the rot in the Nigerian banking sector. Soludo licenced 25 “mega” banks in January 2006, telling Nigerians we could “go to sleep with your two eyes open”.

By December 2008, those who paid steep prices for the banks’ shares during the banking sector consolidation, were already having sleepless nights. Few were sleeping at all after Sanusi forced the banks to tell the truth about their operations.

Today, less than thirteen of the banks which took off in 2006 are still listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

One of the oldest banks in Nigeria will soon depart from the exchange and go private, after being mortally wounded by hasty consolidation – against which Atedo Peterside and I warned in 2005.

The problems of AMCON and the assault on its MD is partly related to how the N3.9trillion toxic loans were generated. The bankers and their friends are desperate to remain anonymous. They will and must fail. The money belongs to all Nigerians – not 1,000 individuals.

At any rate, even if Kuru is guilty of any crime, that should not stop AMCON from releasing the list of debtors to the public. The court judgment, the Executive Order and the instructions of the NASS were given to AMCON to carry out.

Kuru’s travails should not stop AMCON from discharging its responsibilities by releasing the list today.

“There are no desperate situations, only desperate men”: — Joseph Goebbels, 1897-1945, Hitler’s Propaganda Chief, Vanguard Book of Quotations, VBQ, P. 38.

Through my sources within AMCON, I am aware that some of the biggest debtors have gone to great lengths to prevent the list from seeing the light of day. Transfers reportedly have been made; and death threats have been issued.

It is understandable why some, if not all, of the 1,000 are so desperate. It is not easy to relocate from Asokoro or Minister’s Hill to Gwagwalada, from Banana Island to Mushin, after your mansion might have been seized by AMCON and your name splashed on the pages of newspapers.

A lot of people living false lives are involved; and they are desperate to keep their secrets unrevealed.

Among the steps they have taken, one was truly strategic. Nigerians wondering where the activist lawyers who regularly harass the Federal Government, for not disclosing the names of corrupt Nigerians, must also wonder while the “activists” have been silent with regard to the 1,000 deadbeats.

The reason is simple. Several of our most noisy “activists”, especially Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, have been signed on by the loan defaulters. So, nobody should expect a SAN to surrender an eight figure brief for the sake of fighting for Nigeria.

As far as our SANs are concerned, their clients have done nothing wrong. That should not surprise us; it does not surprise me.

It has always been true of the legal trade that “whether you’re an honest man or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.” – Sir W.S. Gilbert, 1836-1911.

Lawyers, globally, operate on the basic principle of “he who pays the piper dictates the tune”. Nigerian lawyers are not different from the rest. So, we should not expect any support from lawyers on this matter.

“The only legal assistance we can expect is one for which patriotic citizens will pay to take AMCON to court and compel the company to release the list of those holding Nigeria to ransom by sitting illegally on N3.9tn of public money – which is badly needed.

Just in case the reader thinks I am flogging a dead horse, let me point out that N3.9trillion recovered, will make it possible for the FG to redeem its pledge to ASUU fully, to doctors fully, to teachers fully, pay NASS staff fully and still have enough funds to turn at least six university teaching hospitals into world-class health centres.

That is why we must all join in encouraging AMCON, despite death threats, to release the names and start the long process of recovering our funds.

LAST LINE. “The bigger they come, the harder they fall.” —Mohammed Ali, the Greatest boxer.

My sources have revealed to me some of the names on the list. It is breath-taking. Surulere will soon receive some strange residents.

Vanguard News