Jimoh Ibrahim, a senator and one of the top 20 debtors of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), wants to be the governor of Ondo State under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

AMCON, which was established in 2010 to revive the financial system by buying and resolving the non-performing loan assets of banks, got a court order in November 2020 to seize 12 prime assets and freeze all accounts belonging to Ibrahim and his companies over N69.4 billion debt. The affected properties spread across Lagos and Abuja.

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FIJ understands that the debt is from loans acquired by companies linked to Ibrahim. Findings show that this loan was among the 393 loans AMCON purchased from Union Bank of Nigeria PLC during the first phase of Eligible Bank Assets (EBAs) purchases. EBAs are also called non-performing loans (NPLs) and include loans that are subject to late repayment or are unlikely to be repaid by the borrower.

Further findings revealed that efforts made by AMCON to recover Ibrahim’s loan had been futile before it took over his assets in 2020.

In June 2023, the Court of Appeal in Lagos State dismissed an appeal filed by Ibrahim to challenge the seizure of his assets and freezing of his accounts by AMCON.

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Coupled with his ongoing financial battle with AMCON, Ibrahim was accused of N6.8 billion tax evasion in 2013. Air Nigeria, an airline owned by him, was grounded for several months over allegations of forgery of aviation documents and tax evasion, among others.

In 2012, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) accused the airline of evading tax payments totalling N4.86 billion and forging tax clearance certificates (TCC). FIRS alleged that the company failed to deduct and remit taxes owed to the government between 2007 and 2010.