Okenyi Kenechi
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, on Friday took over properties belonging to a beverage distributor, Ifeoma Chukwuka Nigeria Limited; G-Mevic Global Services Limited, and two others over bad and non-performing loans.
AMCON, acting in conjunction with her counsel, Godfrey O. Agbo Esq, bailiffs of court and Amcon police task force took possession of Ifeoma Chukwuka’s biggest depot located at Akpajo Eleme and three other depots in different locations in Port Harcourt.
Ifeoma Chukwuka is one of Nigerian Brewery’s biggest distributor in West Africa and biggest in Rivers State while G-Mevic is a logistics company headquartered in Trans Amadi industrial layout.
The properties were seized after the companies accessed loans from the defunct Oceanic Bank International worth hundreds of millions of naira which they have been unable to repay.
Timeline of the suit
In August 2016, AMCON acting through her counsel, Godfrey O. Agbo Esq filed a suit for the recovery of the N1.7 billion loan before a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt against G-Mevic Global Services Ltd, Ifeoma Chukwuka Nig Ltd and two others.
The Federal High Court gave an interim order for AMCON to possess 4 depots/properties of the defendants. The said order of the court was enforced and subsisting until 29/3/2017 when the Federal High Court presided by Honourable Justice Saliu Saidu discharged the interim order following an application filed by the 3rd Defendant (Ifeoma Chukwuka Nig Ltd) for misjoinder and lack of privity of contract.
AMCON approached the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division and filed an appeal against the ruling discharging the 3rd Defendant as a party in the matter.
On 23rd June 2020, Court of Appeal, in a majority decision, allowed AMCON’s appeal and set aside the ruling of the Federal High Court that discharged the 3rd Defendant as a party in the suit.
The Court of Appeal also restored the earlier interim order of possession of the four properties of the Defendants (inclusive of the four depots of the 3rd defendant).
Recall that the Federal government of Nigeria set up Amcon in 2010 with the mandate to purchase and recover bad loans.
