TheCable

A federal high court in Lagos has reversed its order for the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to take over the property of Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River state, over an alleged debt of N537,334,360.77.

The court, in a judgement delivered on August 8, had also authorised AMCON and the United Bank for Africa (UBA) to take over Duke’s account in any bank in the interim.

In their application, AMCON had asked the court for possession and custody of the property which it claimed was listed as collateral for the first respondent’s debt “pending the institution and disposal of proceedings for recovery of debt against the respondent, pursuant to Section 49 of the AMCON Act 2010 (as amended)”..

But in a ruling on Wednesday, Nicholas Oweibo, the presiding judge, discharged the takeover order after the parties presented him with their terms of settlement of the case.

The parties involved had told the judge that they were considering an out-of-court settlement and pleaded for an adjournment to enable them make a conclusion.

Juliet Benson, AMCON’s lawyer, told the judge that Duke had fulfilled the terms of the out-of-court settlement agreed by both parties.

“I hereby pray the court to adopt the terms of settlement as the judgment of court,” Benson said.

Edoigiawerie Uyi, Duke’s lawyer, also said his client had shown “good faith by promptly making the payment of over N350m which parties all agreed to”.

“I join my colleagues in praying the court to enter our terms of settlement as the full and final judgment of court,” Uyi said.

The two lawyers urged the judge to adopt the terms of settlements agreed upon by their clients as the judgment of the court in the case.

The judge, therefore, granted their prayers and discharged the takeover order.

“All orders in the case stands discharged,” Oweibo ruled.