The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Chief Victor Umeh, has described the N136 million judgment debt obtained against him by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as fraudulent.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on Monday ordered Umeh to pay N135,722,303.40k, along with accrued interest to AMCON over an unpaid bank loan.
The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment delivered in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/AMC/12/2022 filed by AMCON), declared that Umeh was actually indebted to Corporation and issued an order directing the forfeiture of Umeh’s 5,000,000 units of Skye Bank shares in the records of the Central Securities & Clearing System to AMCON and awarded a cost of N2million in favour of AMCON.
Reacting on the judgment, Umeh said he was not served the suit, arguing that the trial was conducted behind him.
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Umeh said: “It was a joint share purchase loan and my liability is limited to the shares purchased, which the bank kept in its custody before the collapse of the stock market.
“The bank kept and managed the shares untill it collapsed. They didn’t give me anything. The shares are with them; everything is with the bank.
“I contributed N8 million which was 30% of the value of the shares, while the bank contributed N23million, which was 70%. The shares purchased served as the security or collateral.My loss shall be the 30% I invested.
“It is very unfortunate that an institution like AMCON can go to court and suppress relevant facts and hide the truth from the court without bringing the defendant to court; without serving the defendant the suit and obtained a judgement through fraudulent manipulation of the court.
“This attempt by AMCON will fail because we shall be in court to set aside that judgement for lack of fair hearing.
“If AMCON can do this to me, one will wonder what they do to ordinary Nigerians.
“Instead of probing the rape of Nigerians by the failed banks and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, AMCON is busy chasing their victims!”
Umeh said he did not on his own go for the shares, but that Skye Bank approached him to invest in the bank by purchasing the shares in 2008.
He said that he contributed N8 million while the bank contributed N23 million, totalling about N31 million for 5,000000 million shares.
Stating that the forfeiture of the 5,000000 shares according to the contract agreement should settle and end the whole transaction, Umeh said the bank had a bad case and that was why AMCON did not tell the Court the truth behind him.
He said his lawyers had been to the court for three consecutive days to obtain details of the judgement to no avail and expressed optimism that the “fraudulent judgment” would be set aside for lack of fair hearing.
Court documents filed by AMCON claimed that Umeh got a loan of N23 million from the now defunct Skye Bank in January 2008 to enable him to invest in and purchase shares of the bank.
AMCON stated that it later acquired the unpaid debt when Skye Bank became unsuccessful in making Umeh repay.
Admiting that Umeh was absent in court throughout the trial, Justice Ekwo said: “It is trite law that the net effect of the failure of a defendant to file pleadings is that the assertions of the claimant in his pleadings stand unchallenged and are deemed admitted and established.
“It is also trite that the effect of a defendant’s failure to call evidence in defence of the claims against him at the trial is that he is presumed to have admitted the case made against him by the claimant.”
The judge added that despite Umeh’s failure to file a defence, the plaintiff was able to prove its case through the evidence it presented.
