By Innocent Anaba
The Supreme Court has struck out an appeal by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, in its long-running legal battle with Suru Worldwide Ventures Nigeria Ltd and its Managing Director, Mr Edward Akinlade, over a disputed debt claim of N24.6 billion.
The apex court, sitting in Abuja on July 7, 2025, ruled that the appeal was incompetent and was therefore struck out.
The ruling was delivered by Justice Uwani Aji, with Justices Ibrahim Saulawa, Emmanuel Agim, Chidiebere Uwa, and Abubakar Umar concurring.
“This notice of appeal, having been withdrawn for being incompetent, is hereby struck out,” Justice Aji declared, effectively ending AMCON’s efforts at the apex court in this case.
The legal tussle traces back to a banker-customer dispute between Suru Worldwide Ventures and Oceanic Bank Plc (now Ecobank Plc), over what Suru alleged to be gross mismanagement of its account.
In 2011, Suru Worldwide Ventures, initiated Suit No. FHC/L/CS/450/2011 at the Federal High Court against Ecobank and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, citing inconsistent and unexplainable debt restructuring and alleged “creative accounting.”
Suru contended that its account, which was in credit, was manipulated, and that the alleged debt initially restructured to N8.3 billion in 2012 inexplicably ballooned to over N24.6 billion by 2013, despite no new facility being granted.
The CBN was later struck out as a party in the suit.
AMCON entered the fray in 2016, claiming to have purchased the disputed debt from Ecobank and was joined as a co-defendant.
Just two days after being joined, AMCON filed a counterclaim seeking to recover the N24.2 billion from Suru and Mr Akinlade.
However, both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled against AMCON.
The trial court found the counterclaim to be an abuse of court process, citing multiple suits by AMCON on the same subject matter and failure to obtain declaratory reliefs in an earlier case (FHC/L/CS/218/2014), effectively extinguishing AMCON’s right to sue on the matter.
Dissatisfied, AMCON filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in July 2021.
But at Monday’s sitting, its notice of appeal was deemed incompetent and withdrawn, leading to the dismissal.
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