The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has directed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to immediately restore Olatone Abdulsalam Ventures Limited to its leased property at 18A Ladipo Oluwole Street, Apapa GRA, Lagos, following what the company describes as an unlawful eviction carried out without a valid court order.
The Committee also directed the Inspector-General of Police to investigate the circumstances surrounding the eviction and to discipline any officers found to have acted outside the law in assisting with the removal of the company from the premises.
The resolution followed a petition presented before the Committee by Olatone Abdulsalam Ventures Limited, which alleged that AMCON, acting through agents and with police support, forcefully took over the property despite not being a party to the substantive suit governing its ownership and tenancy.
Counsel to the petitioner told the Committee that the company had subsisting tenancy rights over the property and that AMCON’s claim to the premises rested on a debt-recovery process against a separate debtor, not the petitioner itself. “AMCON was not a party to the suit, hence, it has no legal title to retain possession,” counsel submitted, urging lawmakers to intervene to halt what was described as an abuse of AMCON’s statutory recovery powers.
Presenting details of the dispute, the petitioner said the company had operated from the Apapa premises for several years under a valid lease arrangement before AMCON moved in to take possession as part of efforts to recover a debt allegedly owed by a company only loosely connected to the property’s chain of title. The petitioner contended that no judgment had been obtained specifically authorising AMCON to eject it from the premises, and that due process was bypassed when the eviction was carried out.
The company further told lawmakers that it had approached the courts to challenge the eviction, but that the property was taken over before the litigation could run its full course, resulting in significant financial losses, including inventory and business disruption. It urged the Committee to compel AMCON to reverse the eviction and restore the status quo pending the determination of any subsisting suit on the matter.
Responding to the allegations, representatives of AMCON maintained that the corporation had followed its statutory mandate under the AMCON Act in pursuing recovery of non-performing assets linked to the property, and that its actions were carried out within the framework of its enforcement powers. However, members of the Committee pressed the agency on the specific legal basis for evicting a party that was not named as a debtor or respondent in the underlying recovery proceedings.
After deliberating on the submissions from both sides, the Committee resolved that AMCON’s continued occupation of the property, in the face of unresolved questions over its legal title against the petitioner, could not stand. Lawmakers directed the corporation to immediately restore Olatone Abdulsalam Ventures Limited to the premises and to refrain from further self-help enforcement actions against parties not directly implicated in its recovery proceedings.
On the conduct of the police during the eviction, the Committee expressed concern that officers had reportedly been deployed to enforce a property takeover in the absence of a court order specifically directed at the petitioner. It accordingly directed the Inspector-General of Police to open an investigation into the role played by officers in the operation, and to take disciplinary action against any personnel found to have exceeded their lawful authority or acted in aid of an unlawful eviction.
Background
AMCON was established under the AMCON Act to acquire and manage non-performing loans owed to Nigerian banks, with broad statutory powers to recover assets linked to defaulting obligors. Disputes over the scope of those powers, particularly where third parties or tenants with independent legal interests are affected, have recurred in Nigerian courts and before legislative oversight committees in recent years, with critics warning that aggressive enforcement without judicial sanction against uninvolved parties risks violating due process and property rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
The House Committee on Public Petitions routinely serves as a legislative avenue for citizens and businesses to seek redress against government agencies and parastatals, with its resolutions carrying persuasive, though not directly judicially enforceable, weight. The Committee is expected to monitor compliance with its directive and may invite AMCON and police authorities for further briefings if the resolution is not implemented.
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