Former Kwara State governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, says Wednesday’s seizure of his Ilorin property by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria was not necessary.
AMCON had taken possession of Ahmed’s property on Wednesday following a Lagos Federal High Court order empowering the Corporation to seize the former governor’s mansion over his inability to offset a N5billion debt.
The corporation had declared Ahmed a high-profile obligor who “remained recalcitrant” and refused to repay his obligation.
The court had in addition to the seizure of his Ilorin mansion belonging to him in Ilorin, granted AMCON possession of the ex-governor’s other assets in Lagos and Abuja.
But Ahmed in his reaction in a statement by his media aide, Wahab Oba, said, “The reported takeover of his Ilorin property by a lawyer purporting to represent AMCON was unnecessary and overzealous due to ongoing talks to resolve previous transactions with two defunct banks.”
The former governor explained that the dispute arose from a margin loan he secured from the defunct Intercontinental Bank and Finbank in 2009 for the purchase of shares which was then lumped with “unrelated loans obtained by others.”
Ahmed said that the banks held the shares as collateral to sell and recover the loans in case of any default.
He said the banks passed the loans to AMCON instead of selling the shares to recover the loan amount.
The former Kwara governor added that prior to the “overzealous conduct” of taking over his house, he was already negotiating with AMCON on how to separate the liabilities.
Ahmed also said he gave a commitment to meet any outstanding obligations once the loans had been disaggregated.