₦airaland Forum

Fawklicant:
This thread or the issue at hand is not about BMB's achievements, but about loans and AMCON intervention. He has achieved a lot with his siblings and I admire him for that. But defaulting on loan payments/servicing is never in good taste. Let AMCON do what needs to be done to recover their monies within the tenets of the law.

However, I opened the thread with so much enthusiasm with a view to learning more about the situation only to find a hogwash piece in which the poster couldnt even wait till the second or third paragraph to spew his bias.

The piece was written to spite a certain people whom the op sees as unreasonable because they hold divergent views on issues.
I wouldnt call this intervention a witch hunt. Nooooooo! Far from it. It is a normal AMCON procedure which has happened many times before even with much larger corporate entities, however if statements credited to AMCON lawyer today are anything to go by, I'd say there's some political undertones to it. He made some very unprofessional comments about the situation. Very unsavoury.

On the other hand there is no smoke without fire or so the saying goes. I think p[eople have earned the right to be suspicious of anything the present govt does as it is usually cloaked in lies and deceit with little room for fairness. Its anti--corruption war is skewed to say the least and it has shown that it would not tolerate opposition whereas it is through opposition that it got to ppwer in the first place. Anyways, that is a topic for further discussion.

If I was going to write an article about AMCON and silverbird etc like the op did, I'd do a detailed writeup with a view to educating people and gaining converts onto the side of knowledge and reason bearing in mind that some people form opinions based on limited knowledge and information. Beginning such a thread with biased sentiments has already put a deathknell to whatever points he hoped to convey.

You are absolutely right about the bolded above, I opened this thread purely to lament and expose the folly of several people who (I believe) have been making embarrassing comments over this silverbird issue since yesterday. I impulsively opened this thread in response to another thread which I bumped into in the morning (see below)

https://www.nairaland.com/3184912/dangota-also-owing-amcon-209

maxtamazin:
Same old delusioned illetrate Nigerian youth. Take youself out of the Buhari, politics and shit. Think about it....what do Nigerian need now? Small businesses ......right? So why the fu**ck will any sensible goverment close one single private firm in Nigeria at the present climate? Yes, he is owing (nobody know the details and again loan and business work hard in hand) but that doesn't mean closing it up especially not at this moment.

We need all the indigenous business to stay open no matter what. Foreign companies are running away because of forex saga, i don't give a shi..t about AMCON or your senseless rambling, the victims here are the workers who will loose thier source of livelihood.

Just to cure your ignorance, that the business was possessed by AMCON does not mean the business has been closed or workers sacked. The business is still functional as we speak nobody gets to lose his/her job.

With that settled, here are some questions for you;
1. What does the case of a businessman vs bank have to do with politics or Buhari?
2. Are you suggesting that bank debtors shouldn't pay their debts any more because they employ people?
3. Or are you suggesting that the FG bails out a private business?

Bailing out a private business isn't a bad idea especially when it employs a lot of people, but are you aware that AMCON initially buying over this bad debt from Union bank is already a case of FG bailing out this private business?... how many times should government bailout a single private business?...

knightsTempler:
Let me put in perspective for you, I'm saying the very government that is ordering banks not to fire people, the very government that has been unable to do a single thing, citing economic downturn is expecting a private business not to also feel the heat of the economy and owe. OK. Government that has free oil flowing from Niger Delta plus loans from all over the globe is owing and failing in many responsibilities, yet BEN BRUCE, an INVESTOR and ENTREPRENEUR that should be valued and caressed like a lover. A Ben Bruce who is keeping 1000 people and their family members, from starvation; a Ben Bruce that does not owe gate man a penny is the one the Federal Government feels they should sacrifice on the altar of politics.

Governments are giving bailout to businesses, but Ben Bruce must pay his debts even with the country in recession.

I no blame anybody

Name any business name you knew in the 70's that is still alive till now. Is it Leventis? Kingsway? Lennards? Bata? Silverbird is growing since the seventies and who is that that dares to question LEGACY?

Some questions for you;
1. what does this case have to do with politics or Buhari biko?
2. Are you suggesting that bank debtors shouldn't pay their debts any more because they employ plenty people?
3. Or are you suggesting that the FG bails out the private business?

Bailing out a private business isn't a bad idea especially when it employs a lot of people, but are you aware that AMCON initially buying over this bad debt from Union bank is already a case of FG bailing out the business?... how many times should government bailout a single private business?... Meanwhile FYI, that the business was possessed by AMCON does not mean the business has been closed and workers sacked. The business is still functional as we speak nobody gets to lose his/her job.

godwin120alex:
D writer of dis article doesn't ve sense cos he ought to know that Nigerians don't reason well that was why d believed APC propaganda. Whatever is happening to Nigerian youths is caused by APc

This got me Lol-ing

OLADD:
The president himself had sown the seed of sentiment and suspicion in his so-called anti-corruption crusade by overlooking the alleged corrupt acts of his party members, hence it's completely illogical to bash those people that see Bruce's travail as witch hunt. Let the anti corruption war be holistic and the hue about witch hunt would die naturally.

We all have brains in our heads and it is imperative that we at least use it to navigate our left from the right. If you think there is nothing wrong with the reasoning of those alleging witch-hunt in this clear case of 'businessman vs bank,' why did you not also join the bandwagon of those claiming Buhari is responsible for this?

CyerSeries:
Clowns everywhere.. So you just wasted your time writing this thrash to defend dangote and spite those defending BMB? You all are the same.. Shameless sycophants!!!

I never defended anybody in my writeup. I was only attempting to expose the severe foolishness of those alleging foul play and political witch-hunt in the Silverbird issue. What has politics got to do between an issue of a bad loan between a businessman and his bank?

Meanwhile there is nothing to defend in Dangote, he is a businessman and like every other businessman, he expands his companies using loans and there is nothing wrong in that as long as you service your loans regularly. Even the Bruces who had their businesses taken over did not allege any form of witch-hunt, Ben clearly stated that this is a minor setback which would be sorted in no time; but how some human brains automatic link an issue between a man and his bank to Buhari beats my imagination.

dammytosh:
To be fair to the Bruce.


They never scream Witch Hunt.

It is the slaves that are repeating witch hunt like a cracked CD player.

Of course Ben Bruce is not an ediot, he's a man with common sense and he knows how these things work; he also knows that by taking the right steps, he would be able to regain control of his companies in no time. But i can't say so much about the hordes of wailers who as can be seen from this thread and others, have reduced themselves to glorified imbeciles all because of politics. It's a shame!

daniska3yaro:
BEN BRUCE vs MUHAMMADU BUHARI
- one an icon while the other is a dull con.
Really? Can people be this stupid? Dancing and dinning on the fact that Ben Murray-Bruce owes AMCON just 10 billion naira loan and the tyrant Buhari seals his business just to stifle his voice. A man that has had this dream for 36 years and still counting.
Now let me burst your bubbles, even your country NIGERIA owes and takes loans upon loans..................
Even the old frail Buhari took a loan to buy his nomination form. Yes he took a loan to become a president, and he is attacking a man who took loans to expand his empire to employ thousands of Nigerians. Let's don't forget Dangote of the 97% clan owes AMCON more than 200 billion and Ben Bruce of the 5% clan just owes 10 billion. But it's Ben that is being attacked.
Buhari that has never employed anybody, that has always lived off the government from his recommendation days in the army, to governor, to head of state, to minister, started taking pension and also took loan to become president again. SHAMELESS OLD CON.
You can't compare both men, Ben Bruce is a statesman and an icon, Buhari is an opportunist, an empty man and a con who has added no value to Nigeria. Nigeria added value to him and he is indebted to us.
I am Oyinemi Nicholas Endeley, a son from the IZON KINGDOM and I just want to make commonsense.

Copy#.

No insult intended, but both you and the author of this repulsively senseless writeup sound very dull. When you owe a bank, you have to pay back your loan. If you dont, the properties you tendered as collateral would be taken from you. Just last month, even Dangote's younger brother (Sani Dangote) had his company taken from him by AMCON. Similarly, the same AMCON took over the companies and froze the accounts of Jimoh Ibrahim just this same week. We never heard even the supposed almajiri uneducated northerners crying foul over those. Receive sense!

NOETHNICITY:
Obailala, u and I see tins clearly insame light! I never knew Nigerians re this unintelligent! Little wonder Okonjo Iweala, addressing employment problem some years ago, declared that Nigerians re simply unemployable. Her reason was that most unemployed Nigerians can't deliver. In plain words majority of Nigerians are dull.
Its sooooo sad for a pple whose faculty is sooo low that they believe almost anything without putting their brains to task! If for example Fowl-ose, the president of ipod, 2moro comes out to say, 'APC or Buhari is responsible for infertility amongst men of SE,' don't be surprised that pple will believe him.
That's jus how low intelligence has sunk in Nigeria.
Sadly, these yoots re the so-called 'leaders of tomoro'.
Once again may God reward u for taking soooo much of ur time educating Nigerians on simple tins they shud know!
Lalasticlala this is a very educating, informing and enlightening thread pls help push this to front page so our pple can learn.

It's really sad how a lot of people, for the want of a political argument, have wilfully decided to throw their common senses to the dogs... It's truly a frightening development.

[quote author=MasterofNL post=46886331][/quote]I'm pretty sure you are one of the people I was describing...

I thought some mumus claimed Rochas was a useless man that hasn't done a single thing in the state?... I thought these same mumus also claimed Rochas was passionately hated by Imo people?

Clowns!

Enahi:
Now you are taking this personal na fight.

E dey pain me the way some people dey reason, I dont know any more if you are just pulling my legs with these your responses or if you are actually being serious.

“Because of a mere N11 billion debt, AMCON/Buhari and APC want to take over Silverbird”
“Buhari is simply going after his political enemies to silence them”
“The takeover of Silverbird is purely political witch-hunt”
“Is Ben Bruce the only person who owes money in Nigeria?”
“Dangote owes N209 billion but Bruce owes only N11 billion, yet Dangote is walking free”
"In fact, Buhari is a tyrant, Buhari is a dictator, a Hilter, a devil, a destroyer, we want freedom, bla bla bla…."

These are the sort cringe inducing statements spewed into cyberspace since yesterday by ‘the usual suspects,’ most of whom are supposed to be the so called leaders of tomorrow. 99% of the people spewing these thing have no clue what it means to service a loan, neither do they have a clue how AMCON operates.

They have also intentionally turned a blind eye or are just plainly ignorant of the fact that Ben Bruce is not the first person to have his business possessed; a mere application of the Common Sense which Mr Bruce has been trying hard to impart on these folks should have told them that bad loans have nothing to do with Buhari or APC or PDP or religion or region.

Just last month, AMCON possessed the business of Alhaji Sani Dangote (Bulk Pack Services Ltd) for bad loans; Sani Dangote is the younger brother of Alhaji Aliko Dangote. We did not hear this senseless cry of Buhari Buhari Buhari!!
http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/05/26/amcon-takes-over-sani-dangotes-asset/
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/debt-recovery-amcon-takes-dangotes-bulk-pack-services-ltd/

Just 3-4 days ago, this same AMCON also repossessed properties of Mr Jimoh Ibrahim due to a defaulted N50 billion loan, they even went further to freeze his accounts. We also did not hear any shouts of Buhari!
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/n50bn-debt-amcon-takes-jimoh-ibrahims-firms-freezes-bank-accounts/

Many other takeovers have been undertaken by AMCON in recent times from Bacita Sugar to G. Cappa to Bi-Courtney to Aero to Arik etc, most of these bad loans were bought by AMCON when they took over failed banks. All these happened under Yaradua, GEJ and then Buhari and never for once have we ever heard of people accusing the president for these, but now we have the Buhari hate factor.

It is sad to note how the reasoning of Nigerian youths have been so degraded; everything these days is viewed as witch-hunt, assault, attack, oppression and marginalisation even when glaring evidence proves otherwise. A lot of our folks need to emancipate themselves from this mental slavery.

Enahi:
Oh please spare me all that bullcrap, where was Amcon or whatever they are called when various banks were listing companies that hasn't paid their loans through Newspapers. How many of the Companies has Amcon taken over?

I showed you 2 examples of AMCON taking over businesses which default on loans above; I mentioned Sani Dangote and Jimoh Ibrahim. If you need more examples, you have examples like Wale Babalakin of Bi-courtney group, Aero Contractors, even Arik air at some point, Bacita Sugar, G. Cappa etc, AMCON bought over all these loans and many others when they bailed out several banks, AMCON is now in the business of recovering the loans. You are free to simply do a google search to educate yourself.

I will not bother responding to you further because it is obvious I am wasting my time forcing info into the head of someone who has intentionally blocked their comprehension abilities. Have a nice day!

Enahi:
What evidence do you have to show me that Dangote is servicing his loan?

When you default on your loan from a bank, that is when AMCON comes in as a saviour and buys over your loan (this basically gives you more time to raise the money and also prevents the bank itself from failing).

A simple evidence that Aliko Dangote is servicing his loans is that AMCON has never bought any of his bad loans. Now in your wild imagination, can you point out where you got the pointless conjecture from that Dangote is not servicing his loan?

Enahi:
Who cares how many numbers of likes you get in a post, we all know there are millions of dumb people on nairaland that will obviously like your post.

Fyi I am not against what Amcon did but truth is they should do same to Dangote that's the message the op is trying to pass across.

Why should they do same to a Dangote who is regularly servicing his loan?... Does what you have just said make any sense to you?

Bethelwealthy:
............some town criers said nairaland has over 500,000 intellectuals and yet they needed someone to tell them an obvious truth? what a shame........who among you is privy to the fact that Silver-bird has not been servicing his loan? am sure you only replicate what the "news" and AMCON said. Remember how they lied about Jimoh untill he called their bluffs........i see the hand of the ruling party beneath this trashy fortune-hunting. Loans are the second nature of private businesses, "let he who doesnt owe no one support this evil". Imagine taking a business a family has built over two generations from them and think the country will know peace, Nay!

Stop being ignorant, if silverbird was servicing their loans, AMCON wouldn't have bought the debt in the first instance, and remember AMCON buying the debt did not even happen under Buhari so quit these kindergarten conspiracy theory analysis of yours and your accusation of buhari or apc.

If you default on your loans, your properties which you tendered as collateral will be possessed; this is the most basic form of common sense. Even the Bruces did are not claiming witch-hunt, this is common sense which even a primary school pupil understands.

Bethelwealthy:
Oga ade, while i may not know you personaly, it is obvious you're bipolar. What is wrong in comparative analysis. If both dangote and Bruce are defaulters, and dangote owes close to 200billion while Bruce owes a meagre of 10billion, are you too brainwashed to speak up? against perceived bias and motivated treatment? if you are, i am not.

Who told you Dangote is owing 200 billion and even if he is, who told you he isn't servicing his loans?

Aliko Dangote recently took a loan and is building one of the worlds biggest refineries; and oh yes, he is servicing his loans else he would be in trouble. Just last month, Sani Dangote the younger brother of Aliko had his companies repossessed by AMCON; you cannot owe a bank, refuse to pay and then run around to shout witch-hunt, that is just silly.

onyepapa:
copied


Dangote is not owing AMCON 60 billion. He is owing AMCON 209 Billion. Ben Bruce is owing 11 billion.
And for God sake, Businesses run on loans They owe. who can pls explain this to daft people in government and on social media sites Buhari has never paid school fees in his life. from primary one to senior high
when he dropped out, education was free Since he joined the army, the army has paid for all his travels, He does not know what Ben Bruce and Co go through!! when the economy has never determined the amount of meat in his pot of soup, it is very easy to order the closure of Silverbird

I keep asking whether it is a mandatory requirement for a person to be unintelligent before he/she can become a wailer. Tufiakwa! Our youths have totally thrown their senses to the dogs.

@Onye Nna,

Which Dangote are you talking about?... Is it Aliko Dangote or another Dangote?... Where did you churn out this your meaningless story from?
This is the sort of senseless false stories you share and spread in your neighbourhoods and in your circles which has no other effect than to incite anger amongst the teeming population of ignorant and gullible folks (like yourself).

What on earth does Buhari have to do with AMCON taking over the property of Silverbird Group?... The money owed by silverbird group wasn't borrowed when Buhari was in power, the loan wasn't defaulted when Buhari was in power, the loan wasn't bought over by AMCON (to save Union Bank from falling) when Buhari was in power, AMCON usually gives the loan defaulters a period of time to service their loan after which, if the loan is not still repaid, AMCON takes over the property/collateral. AMCON gave Silverbird group this deadline long before Buhari came to power and now, the deadline expires, AMCON takes over the collateral and you chose to blame Buhari for this?... What on earth has happened to the brain of our youths?... Is it a must that we should throw away our brains in order to play opposition?

[size=13pt]By the way, just 3-4 days ago, this same AMCON repossessed Jimoh Ibrahim's property due to a defaulted N50 billion loan, they even went further to freeze his accounts. I did not hear any shouts of Buhari!.[/size]
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/06/n50bn-debt-amcon-takes-jimoh-ibrahims-firms-freezes-bank-accounts/

[size=13pt]Just last month, the same AMCON took over Sani Dangote's properties, Sani Dangote is the younger brother of the Aliko Dangote. Obviously we did not hear this silly cry of Buhari Buhari Buhari!![/size]

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/05/26/amcon-takes-over-sani-dangotes-asset/
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/debt-recovery-amcon-takes-dangotes-bulk-pack-services-ltd/

Now yesterday, AMCON takes over the properties of Silverbird due to expiration of the deadline given, and it has become another news for people who have refused to use their brains to wail on. A lot of people really need their brains formatted. Tufiakwa!

cc: Enahi, PRYCE, paschu, Cjrane2, MadamExcellency, Bethelwealthy, IVORY2009

crownprince102:
Complete Seccession will be better....

Full secession comes with an incredible lot of baggages and is totally not a good idea at all in this day and age. Forget all the emotions running high all because some people hate the current leadership, outright secession would most likely spell a major doom and certainly lead to chaos especially on the seceeding side.

A proper federal system is all we need.

Mcowubaba:
Hmmmm
How will this affect football transfers, Euro, UEFA champions league, do u have an idea?

What about EU immigrants already in UK

Someone is obviously concerned about where it affects them

thelegend1:
This takeover has political undertones... There are other billionaires with non performing loans in this same naija

Name the other businesses biko.... Before AMCOn takes over a business like this, I'm sure they normally serve a court order and give a sufficient notice for the business owners to pay up. When your notice ends, they come in and take over the business. Last week Jimoh Ibrahim's business was taken over and yesterday it was silverbird; obviously the time given to them to repay has elapsed.

So before you resume your wailings, kindly point out the businesses which are owing, have refused to service their loans, have been given a deadline, the deadline has passed but their business hasn't been taken over yet?

AMCON taking over a business shouldn't mean shutting the business down. Business has to go on as usual, workers have to still be employed and paid their salaries and clients still have to be served.

Ekwensu eromancia mamiwata!

Now there has to be a referendum in Nigeria for a return to regionalism.

nortcentrallord:
If you are not justifying the present, why raise the past as a defence for the present? Why was the past "changed" if things will still have to continue like the past. Be truthful to yourself, what has really changed between the past and the present? Is the present not going and doing exactly the same thing they criticized about the past?

You can never know where you are going without knowing where you have been. It is meaningless for anyone to expect something that happened just last year to be forgotten.

Now once again my I make it clear that I wasnt defending anything. I was only asking a simple question which obviously hasnt been answered yet.

gformula:
This Kemi Adeosun is one the biggest shits happening to this Country at this moment , can you imagine?How long are we going to be borrowing cos I know salary is paid monthly not once a year. Is she going to borrow what will cover for the rest of their tenure? At this point I join those who are asking her to be relieved of her duty. She is totally clueless about how to go about the economy of this nation.

Just a simple question for you... As at February/March 2015 when oil still sold above $70/barrel and when we didnt have the Scavengers shutting down half of our oil production, the world acclaimed Ngozi Iweala borrowed money (twice this present figure) to pay FG worker's salaries. Now in all honesty, did you also label NOI as the biggest shiit to happen to the nation and did you also call for NOI to be relieved of her duty for being clueless?

**Note that I'm not trying to justify the present mess**

clefstone:
at that time there were a lot of capital projects going on including preparation for a general election. On the contrary, right now, no capital project, lesser number ministries, TSA, recovered loots, yet no respite.

set the record straighter

Na wa for reasoning oh! Biko which capital projects were going on in 2015? A year when the ministry of works was allocated a measly N18bn?... Make una try fear God abeg.

Mr Common Sense has just given a commonsensical response to the hordes of people bombarding him on twitter for a response. Unfortunately for the shallow-minded ones amongst his followers, they had already been calling out buhari as usual and would be greatly disappointed by this his response.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/3877026_1_png4a47a0db6e60853dedfcfdf08a5ca249

MasterofNL:
ome nka, fulanim afia, Judas obail ala how far?

MasterofNL how near?

The gutter outbursts of Fayose which can only appeal to the low frequency brains, is that what someone refers to as opposition?

Besides, is the man innocent of the so called allegations against him?.... How can someone with such a huge and glaring stain be so vocally careless?... Any way, it is said that those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make them mad.

For Dangote to get the support of every single government, both PDP, APC, North and South, then there is definitely something he knows how to do right.

As long as he uses the money for (known) legitimate businesses which would create jobs, improve forex earnings and generally boost the nation's economy, then no biggie. Besides, Dangote is audaciously building one of the biggest refineries in the world, a project which would save Nigeria over $6billion yearly in forex flight and a project which should be a source of embarrassment to every single FG since 1980. If the CBN doesn't support this kind of project, I wonder who else the CBN should be supporting with forex.

Luckylife:
Why is Dangote the only Nigerian that always get favours and free great enabling environment to boost his private business ? This is undemocratic and pure nepotism.

Nepotism from where? He also enjoyed the same favour from previous governments so it is out of place for anyone to think he enjoys this due to nepotism.

LRNZH:
The difference between Dangote and Ben Bruce is "debt-servicing". Ben Bruce has not paid his debts for a long while now (since 2011 if not longer).

Jimoh Ibrahim's assets were also seized a few days back. Why did you guys not come out to claim that Jimoh was singled out?

We should be rejoicing that agencies are doing their jobs under this Govt. That's what they are mandated to use tax payer's money for.

The inability or decision of Bruce to pay his debts affects Union Bank and the common men who deposit their funds there. The bank gave the loan because they hoped to make some profit from the interest for their depositors. AMCON is protecting the banks and the larger economy.

If Union Bank fails tomorrow due to bad debts, it won't be the big men moneys that will go down. Na me and you money.

I hope you got some common sense .

It is painful explaining to daft people how daft they are cos their daftness would prevent them from comprehending your explanations.

Oh Yes! "Buhari has directed AMCON to seize ONLY Ben Bruce's properties purely because Mr Bruce criticises Buhari." Just allow them to drown in their own folly; maybe the nation would be a better place when that happens.