N24.6bn Debt: Supreme Court Dismisses AMCON’s Appeal Against Firm

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed an appeal filed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) against Suru Worldwide Ventures Nigeria Ltd and its managing director, Edward Akinlade, over a contested debt claim of N24.6 billion.

The apex court threw out the appeal, marked SC/CV/865/2021, ruling that it was incompetent.Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji delivered the ruling, and Justices Ibrahim Saulawa, Emmanuel Agim, Chidiebere Uwa, and Abubakar Umar concurred.

The court held, “This notice of appeal, having been withdrawn for being incompetent, is hereby struck out.”

The legal conflict originates from a banker-customer dispute between Suru Worldwide Ventures and Oceanic Bank Plc (now Ecobank Plc) regarding what the firm claimed to be gross mismanagement of its account.

In 2011, Suru Worldwide Ventures initiated Suit No. FHC/L/CS/450/2011 at the Federal High Court in Lagos against Ecobank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), alleging inconsistent and inexplicable debt restructuring and what it termed “creative accounting.”

Suru contended that its account, initially in credit, was manipulated, leading to a debt restructured to N8.3 billion in 2012 and then inexplicably ballooning to over N24.6 billion by 2013, despite no new facilities being granted.

The CBN was eventually removed as a party in the lawsuit.

AMCON joined the case in 2016, claiming to have purchased the disputed debt from Ecobank, and became a co-defendant.

Two days later, AMCON filed a counterclaim to recover N24.2 billion from Suru and Akinlade.

However, the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled against AMCON.

The trial court found the counterclaim to be an abuse of the court process, citing AMCON’s multiple suits concerning the same issue and its failure to obtain declaratory relief in an earlier case (FHC/L/CS/218/2014). Thus, the court effectively extinguished AMCON’s right to sue on this matter.

Dissatisfied with these rulings, AMCON filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in July 2021.

When the case came up for hearing, the Supreme Court deemed AMCON’s notice of appeal incompetent and subsequently dismissed it.

Before the judgment, Suru Worldwide Ventures issued a Pre-Action Notice to AMCON, demanding over ₦23 billion in special damages for what it described as the wrongful occupation and destruction of its property, specifically the Best Western Hotel located at No. 12 Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.