A Federal High Court in Abuja has given an order for the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to claim N478 million against Perfect Aims Global Engineering Limited and others.
This follows failure by the contractor to pay outstanding debts in their loan agreement with Keystone Bank (defunct Platinum Habib Bank Plc) since September 2016.
In a judgment marked Suit No: FHC/ABJ/AMC/50/2022 and dated March 7, Justice Inyang Ekwo agreed with AMCON that the defendants who are in the business of rehabilitation and construction of roads, refused and failed to discharge the outstanding debts with the bank including the 20 per cent annual interest rate involved in the agreement.
Counsel to AMCON, Olatunji Muritala, contended that the defendants were granted several contract finance facilities at different times and the loan grew to N478 million but they failed to pay as when due and chose to mislead the bank.
“The defendants exposed the claimant to unwarranted litigation by failing to liquidate its outstanding indebtedness as and when due and securitising the debt with a property whose location is not ascertainable,” he said.
According to the court, the defence’s failure to bring a legal representative to deny the allegations showed they had accepted the position of AMCON on the matter.
“It must be stated at this point that the defendants being served, failed to enter a defence in this case. The consequence of failure to enter defence is well known and has been properly articulated by the learned counsel for the claimant (AMCON).
“I find that the claimant has established its case by a preponderance of evidence as required by law,” the judge held.
The contracting firm and its director were customers of the defunct Platinum Habib Bank (now Keystone Bank) and the bank had granted them several contract finance facilities running into hundreds of millions, beginning with N130 million.
The firm’s directors had executed a memorandum of acceptance with the bank dated August 15, 2008, while accepting the terms of the contract finance facility.
When the bank became unable to recover the loan, it sold all the rights, titles, and interest to AMCON via a Loan Purchase and Limited Servicing Agreement, following which AMCON instituted a legal action against the company.