EFCC witness admits AMCON board approved NG Eagle sale
A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday admitted that the sale of NG Eagle airline was approved by the board of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, and that the…
AMCON, Nigeria's "bad bank," was set up to acquire toxic debts from banks and recover value from distressed assets, including Nigeria's defunct national carriers' residual holdings, which were restructured into NG Eagle. The corporation's sale of its stake in the airline has been a point of scrutiny, with former managing director Ahmed Kuru now standing trial on fraud allegations tied to the transaction.
The testimony emerging from the Ikeja Special Offences Court centres on whether the NG Eagle sale followed proper internal approval processes at AMCON. The witness's admission that the board sanctioned the deal, as reported across the outlets, could bear on the prosecution's case against Kuru, since it suggests the transaction was not conducted unilaterally. BusinessDay additionally reports a N149 million payment into an account, a detail not mentioned by Vanguard or Punch, while none of the outlets has yet detailed what the payment was for or how it relates to the board's approval.