Mojisola Dada, a judge at the Lagos special offences court, has adjourned the trial of Ahmed Kuru, former managing director (MD) of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), and four others to March 19.
The defendants are facing charges of allegedly defrauding Arik Air of N76 billion and $31.5 million.
On January 20, Kuru (second defendant) was arraigned alongside Roy Ilegbodu (third defendant), managing director of Arik Air; Kamilu Omokide (first defendant), receiver manager of Arik Air; Union Bank Plc (fourth defendant) and Super Bravo Limited (fifth defendant), before the special offences court in Ikeja, Lagos.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the six-count charge bordering on theft of properties belonging to Arik Air and abuse of office.
The case stems from a petition filed by Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, on behalf of Arumemi-Ikhide, the founder of Arik Air, and the airline’s shareholders.
According to Arik Air on Monday, the adjournment followed the testimony of the first prosecution witness, Peter Omokaro, a former assistant general manager at Union Bank Plc, who was led in evidence by Wahab Shittu, the prosecution counsel.
Omokaro told the court that Arik Air had approached Union Bank for assistance in purchasing aircraft.
According to NAIJAONPOINT , Union Bank only guaranteed facilities secured by the airline from two foreign banks, HSBC Bank and US EXIM Bank, to facilitate the acquisition of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.
“Union Bank in turn collected indemnity from Arik Air and the aircraft were delivered. At no point did we disburse cash for the acquisition of the aircraft and in August 2009, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sent a team to take over the bank there was a guideline that talked about eligible assets and for AMCON to buy non-performing loans and commercial papers,” Omokaro said.
“Thereafter the executive management of Union Bank went ahead to sell the guarantee to AMCON. This happened before the end of December 2010 and in early 2011, when Union Bank discovered the error and tried to see how to legalize the wrong, a meeting took place in London between AMCON, Union Bank, HSBC Bank, and US EXIM Bank with the exclusion of the main obligor, which was Arik Air.”
Omokaro admitted that he was not present at the London meeting and relied on secondhand information from the meeting’s records.
He further said that, according to the recorded minutes, Union Bank had expressed its intention to assume the role of obligor and take over Arik Air’s financial responsibility.
Additionally, NAIJAONPOINT noted that the foreign credit agencies did not enforce the guarantee, nor did Union Bank demand indemnity in return.
During cross-examination by Taiwo Osipitan, counsel for the first and third defendants, Omokaro said that Omokide and Ilegbodu had no involvement in the transaction.
“The first and third defendants were not part of the transaction. I was not at the London meeting,” he said.
While responding to questions from Olasupo Shasore, counsel for Kuru, and Olalekan Ojo, counsel for Union Bank, NAIJAONPOINT said the transaction in question took place in 2010 and that the third defendant was not the managing director of AMCON at the time.
He further informed the court that he was seeing the second defendant for the first time.
Omokaro also acknowledged that he was not in the best position to serve as a witness, explaining that Arik Air’s account was domiciled in Ikeja and that he was not part of the corporate banking department at the time.
Following his testimony, the judge adjourned the trial to March 19 for continuation.
In February 2017, Arik Air was taken over by the federal government via AMCON due to the company’s huge debt profile, which was over N300 billion.
Consequently, the government immediately dissolved the airline’s management team and appointed a receiver manager.
There have been a series of legal battles over the takeover.