The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, has urged the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), to collaborate with all the Assistant Inspector-Generals of Police (AIGs), and Commissioners of Police (CPs) in the 36 states of the federation in its debt recovery drive, which is now at very critical stage of enforcements.
The IGP gave the charge on Tuesday, when the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Ahmed Lawan Kuru, and some top officials of the Corporation paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Force Headquarters in Abuja.
This was the first visit by the AMCON team of senior officials to the IGP since his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 6th.
Alkali Baba, who acknowledged the strategic importance of the recovery of the huge debt owed AMCON and the economy, pledged the Police support for the recovery efforts.
We have been able to recover over N1.4trillion and more than 60 per cent has been due to enforcement because our obligors will not willingly come to us for repayment.
He recalled that when AMCON was first created, the Police had charged its officers and men to support AMCON whenever they called on the Police as the lead agency of the Federal Government in the maintenance of internal security.
He said: “We need to resuscitate that directive nationwide to all the AIGs and CPs to support AMCON within the ambit of the law so that the agency can continue to carry out their debt recovery effort. This is challenging because some of your debtors from experience go to court to challenge your activities just to waste time and not because they will win the case. So, AMCON needs the Police because as long as AMCON is concerned, it will continue to have litigations and enforcements that would require the backing of the Police for execution.”
Reassuring that the Police under his watch would remain as professional as possible, the IGP urged AMCON to also fulfil all that is required by the law to give the officers and men the full legal cover whenever they are confronted during enforcement on the obligors.
Responding, Kuru also recalled that the 2008/2009 global financial crisis led to the creation of AMCON by the Federal Government, because of the withdrawals of credit and investments by foreign portfolios from Nigeria, which resulted in the collapse of the stock market and the loss of about 80 per cent of its value.
To protect the financial sector, the AMCON Bill was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by the President on July 19, 2010. In May 2015, AMCON Act Amendment Bill was signed into Law by former President Goodluck Jonathan, and in July 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the AMCON (Amendment No. 2) Act, 2019 into law as well.
Kuru said: “IG, the police are critical to our recovery effort through enforcement and so on. We have been able to recover over N1.4trillion and more than 60 per cent has been due to enforcement because our obligors will not willingly come to us for repayment. So, this is a national assignment, which we cannot achieve without the support of law enforcement agencies.”
