Indian businessman, AMCON battle over premises takeover

Harish Puri, an Indian businessman, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of flouting a court order and destroying his business.

It was gathered that AMCON sealed Puri’s company, Global Sterling Products Limited, on March 6, 2020, after Justice Rilwan Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Lagos granted the agency an ex parte order on April 11, 2019.

TopNaija learnt that AMCON executed the order after identifying Puri’s firm as one of the 26 alleged debtors that failed to pay back a loan of N8.4bn.

Puri, who alleged that his company was not part of the parties to the suit in which the ex parte order was granted, said AMCON claimed that the street number on which the firm was located was a party to the suit.

The businessman challenged the ex parte order before Justice Chukwujeku Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking to set aside or discharge the order.

Justice Aneke, in a ruling on July 21, 2020, upheld Puri’s application and ordered AMCON to allow Global Sterling to continue running its business on its premises.

Justice Aneke held, “The receiver is, therefore, restrained from interfering with 22nd defendant’s (Global Sterling Production) occupation and use of the said premises contained on the said No. 98 Kudirat Abiola Way pending the determination of this suit. The suit is hereby adjourned till October 26, 2020 for hearing at 10am.”

Puri, however, stated that AMCON had refused to obey the court order, adding that the agency claimed to have filed a notice to challenge it at the Court of Appeal.

He said, “My workers of about 50 persons ran helter-skelter when AMCON came to execute the ex parte order, because there were armed policemen everywhere. They mounted pressure on us and we didn’t know what to do. Most of our mobile phones, office phones, laptops and computers with which we transact our regular businesses, were left inside the building.

“They didn’t allow us to take anything. We wanted to take some of routine things like phones so that if there was an enquiry, we could attend to our customers. Since then, our business has been dead completely because our customers cannot reach us. Our systems, master computer, where we access our official emails, and others are inside the office.

“I contacted our lawyer the following day and he swung into action and challenged the ex parte order before Justice Chukwujeku Aneke and prayed the court to set aside or discharge the April 11, 2020 order, otherwise Global Sterling would be dead as a going concern.

“Justice Aneke ruled in our favour but AMCON refused to obey the new order, but claimed that it had filed a notice to challenge that order at the Court of Appeal.”

Reacting to Puri’s claims, the Head of Corporate Communications, AMCON, Jude Nwauzor, in a statement on Wednesday, described the allegations as spurious.

Nwauzor stated in the statement titled: ‘Allegations by Global Sterling Products Ltd Spurious – AMCON’ that the Federal High Court granted an order, which enabled AMCON to take possession of Puri’s property pending the determination of the substantive suit, adding that the agency had filed an appeal against the variation order granted to Global Sterling Products.

The statement read in part, “After execution of the above-mentioned interim order, Global Sterling Products Limited made a claim to a portion of the attached property (2170.897 square metres), while admitting that the land within the premises was far in excess of the 2,170.897 square metres covered by its Certificate of Occupancy. On July 21, 2020, the Federal High Court, in determination of their application, which was opposed by AMCON, granted their application in part and varied the order made on April 11, 2019.

“The corporation immediately filed an appeal against the variation order on July 22, 2020, and also filed separate applications to suspend the effect of the order before the Federal High Court on the same date and the order for injunction pending an appeal on August 26, 2020. Both the notice of appeal and the applications to suspend the order and for injunction pending appeal were promptly served on Global Sterling Products Limited through its counsel.

“By well-established rules of practice and procedure, the pending appeal and applications, all of which were immediately served on Global Sterling and were duly acknowledged by Global Sterling’s MD in the report, Global Sterling cannot take further actions on the order varying the interim order in respect of the property.

“Despite this fact, Global Sterling, through its counsel, purported to issue forms 48 notice of the consequence of disobedience of court order and form 49 notice to show cause why order of committal should not be made against the Managing Director of AMCON and Mr Lanre Olaoluwa despite the fact that both persons were not parties to the proceedings and the fact that no order was made against AMCON’s MD.

“AMCON has also filed preliminary objections in court against the forms 48 and 49 issued by Global Sterling on the grounds that both are incompetent. It is rather curious that while these processes have been served and are pending, Global Sterling has proceeded to make baseless and defamatory allegations of disobedience of court orders against the corporation, its managing director and the receiver/manager.”