They have therefore approached a Federal High Court in Lagos, asking that the sales or transfer of the banks be invalidated.

In a suit marked FHC/L/CS/1552/14 filed through their lawyer, Fred Agbaje, the bank workers said the move by AMCON to sell the banks without carrying them along was done in breach of the law.

According to them, AMCON ought to have involved them in the bidding process, since by the terms and virtue of their employment they were shareholders and were entitled to a maximum of 10 per cent of the banks’ total assets.

Two workers from each of the three banks sued for themselves and on behalf of their colleagues.

They are Ogunremi Francis and Aneke Emmanuel for Mainstreet Bank staff; Abimbola Alabi and Aderonke Aworemi for Keystone Bank staff; and Victor Nwankwo and Isokpan Efe-Martins for Enterprise Bank staff.

The seventh plaintiff is the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and other Financial Institutions.

Joined as the first to sixth defendants are AMCON, the three banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Security Exchange Commission.

A 35-paragraph affidavit filed in support of their originating summons was deposed to by Ogunremi of Mainstreet Bank.

Ogunremi explained that the suit was necessary, having realised that the recent acquisition and sales of the three banks were “in defiance to the CBN guidelines and other relevant laws governing commercialization and privatization matters and public procurement in Nigeria.”

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AMCON’s Managing Director/CEO Mustafa Chike-Obi, who spoke at a media briefing in Lagos, attributed the loss to provisions made for impaired assets and discount on bonds issued to finance its operations.

The corporation’s total outstanding debt stands at N5.7 trillion, out of which N3.6 trillion is held as bond by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). About N1.7 trillion of the bonds would be redeemed by December 31, 2013.

Chike-Obi said all holders of the bonds were expected by November 19, to indicate whether they would accept cash or Treasury-Bills in place of the bonds, on maturity. “The choice will be made on November 19 for bond holders to decide whether to take cash, or T-bills,” he said.

The AMCON boss said the classification of the loss showed that the Corporation spent N544.8 billion to purchase non-performing loans (NPLs) from banks. The balance of N278.1 billion was used on recapitalisation of banks.

Chike-Obi explained that the losses are expected to be defrayed through recoveries from its assets, with additional cover provided by the Banking Sector Resolution Cost Fund (Sinking Fund) provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and deposit money banks (DMBs). He put the value of the Sinking Fund warehoused at the CBN at over N500 billion.

He said the three bridged banks–Mainstreet, Enterprise and Keystone–acquired and recapitalised by AMCON are worth N100 billion, adding that the initial plan was to conclude their sale by 2014, but the exercise could extend to 2015.

He said there are over 10,000 bad loans under the AMCON’s management, adding that selling the three banks does not represent a major flank of the Corporation’s duty.

“We will sell the banks. We have over 10,000 loans that we are pursuing. Selling the banks will not distract us from doing our job. Selling the banks is not the only thing we do and it is not occupying much of our time, and will not determine what the corporation does on daily basis, either now or in the future,” he said.

Chike-Obi said AMCON is not following up on which company has bided for Enterprise Bank, adding that it is only the financial advisers that have such privilege information.

“Nobody in AMCON knows who the bidders are. Nobody in AMCON knows how many the bidders are, or who will be shortlisted. It is only when they (the advisers –Citi Bank and Vetiva Capital) have looked at all of these people that they decide who and who are qualified,” he said.

Chike-Obi said AMCON does not know how long it would take for the financial advisers to submit the list of qualified or shortlisted bidders, because such would depend on the number involved.

“We don’t know how long it will take for the successful bidders to be known. If there are 100 people who are interested, it will take a longer time than if there were only five people. They have to look at everybody to know who they are, who are behind them, where they got their money from, and if they have the capacity to run a bank. We hope we will conclude it by the end of 2014, it may extend to 2015,” he said.

He said everybody that is qualified in running a bank requires approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its requirement is that such persons must be fit and proper to run a bank.

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