• Insists airline owes Union Bank nothing, court docket admits AMCON board resolutions
Wale Igbintade
Director of the Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Bawa Usman Kaltungo, yesterday described the receivership of Arik Air as fraudulent, insisting that the airline will not be indebted to Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.
Kaltungo, the fourth prosecution witness within the ongoing trial of former Managing Director of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru, and others over an alleged N76 billion ($31.5 million) fraud, informed the Special Offences Court in Ikeja that the purported unhealthy debt that fashioned the premise for the receivership didn’t exist.
The witness, who testified earlier than Justice Mojisola Dada, mentioned his investigation right into a petition in regards to the airline revealed that the premise for appointing a receiver-manager over Arik Air was defective.
In a big improvement, nonetheless, the court docket admitted AMCON board resolutions tendered by Kuru’s counsel, Uyi Giwa-Osagie, to problem the prosecution witness’ assertion that the previous managing director had unilaterally permitted the receivership.
The paperwork have been admitted regardless of the prosecution’s objection to their relevance.
The court docket held that they emanated from AMCON’s board as a company physique and had been duly licensed in accordance with Section 104 of the Evidence Act.
During cross-examination by Giwa-Osagie, counsel to the second defendant, Kaltungo, mentioned he headed the EFCC workforce that investigated the petition regarding Arik Air.
He informed the court docket that he had knowledgeable AMCON’s high administration at a gathering that the airline was not indebted to Union Bank and that the appointment of a receiver-manager to take management of the corporate was faulty.
The witness mentioned, “The foundation for the appointment of a receivership over Arik Air was fraudulent and faulty. There was no bad debt; it does not exist.”
The testimony got here amid allegations surrounding the dealing with of Arik Air’s mortgage obligations, its takeover by AMCON, and transactions involving the airline’s property.
During the cross-examination, Kaltungo maintained that Kuru, in his capability as AMCON’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, had intensive powers and had unilaterally sanctioned the appointment of a receiver-manager over Arik Air.
Giwa-Osagie challenged the account by tendering AMCON board resolutions supposed to reveal that the receivership resolution was taken on the company stage fairly than solely by Kuru.
The prosecution objected to the admissibility of the paperwork, arguing that they have been too distant to the problems earlier than the court docket.
However, Giwa-Osagie argued that the paperwork have been related to figuring out his consumer’s culpability within the alleged offences.
He submitted that Kuru was not standing trial over the propriety of AMCON’s powers to nominate a receiver-manager however over the particular allegations contained within the cost sheet.
The defence counsel maintained that the board resolutions have been essential to determine the circumstances surrounding the choice and problem the witness’s account of Kuru’s position.
He additional argued that the paperwork have been public data that might correctly be tendered from the Bar.
In her ruling, Dada upheld the relevance and admissibility of the paperwork, holding that they emanated from AMCON’s board as a company physique and had been duly licensed in accordance with Section 104 of the Evidence Act.
The admission of the resolutions supplies the defence with documentary proof to problem the prosecution witness’s assertion that Kuru acted unilaterally in approving the receivership.
However, their admission doesn’t, in itself, decide the legality of the receivership or resolve the allegations in opposition to the defendants.
EFCC instituted the case following a petition by human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, on behalf of Arik Air’s promoters and shareholders over the airline’s receivership and associated transactions.
The defendants are Kuru; Kamilu Alaba Omokide, a former receiver-manager of Arik Air; Captain Roy Ilegbodu, the airline’s chief govt officer; Union Bank of Nigeria Plc; and Super Bravo Limited.
They are going through a six-count cost bordering on conspiracy, stealing and abuse of workplace.
The prosecution’s case consists of allegations in regards to the dealing with of Arik Air’s mortgage obligations, the switch of its debt publicity to AMCON and the alleged conversion of N4.9 billion belonging to the airline for the good thing about NG Eagle Limited.
The dispute additionally raises questions concerning the train of AMCON’s statutory powers and the duties of a receiver-manager appointed to take management of a distressed firm.
Section 553(2) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 requires a receiver-manager to behave within the firm’s finest pursuits, together with preserving its property and furthering its enterprise aims.
The defendants have been arraigned on January 20, 2025, and so they pleaded not responsible to all the costs.
One of the counts reads, “That you, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, sometime in 2011 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with the intention of causing and/or inducing the unwarranted sale of Arik Air loans and bank guarantees with Union Bank, made false statements to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) regarding Arik Air Limited’s performing loans, following which you transferred a bogus figure of N71,000,000,000.00 (Seventy-One Billion Naira) to AMCON.”
Another rely reads, “That you, Ahmed Lawal Kuru, Kamilu Alaba Omokide (as Receiver-Manager of Arik Air Limited), and Captain Roy Ilegbodu (Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air Limited in Receivership), sometime in 2022 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, fraudulently converted to the use of NG Eagle Limited the total sum of N4,900,000,000.00 (Four Billion, Nine Hundred Million Naira only), property of Arik Air Limited.”
