REVIEW OF AMCON PRACTISE DIRECTIONS 2013

1
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
ARGYLE & CLOVER, 1st Floor (West Wing) City Hall Catholic Mission Street Lagos Island
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
Email: yemisi.dansu@argyleandclover.com; Website: www.argyleandclover.com
REVIEW OF THE ASSET MANAGEMENT CORPORATION OF NIGERIA
(Special Debt Recovery Practice Direction)
AMCON PRACTICE DIRECTIONS 2013
____________________________________________________________________________
The Chief Justice (CJ) of the Federal High Court, Honourable Justice Ibrahim Ndahi Auta on
11th February 2013 launched the 2013 AMCON Practice Directions, which is a special set of rules
specifically enacted to guide the operation of AMCON cases before the Federal High Court.
The CJ designated seven judges of the court to handle debt recovery petitions filed by AMCON
which are: Ibrahim Buba J, John Tsoho J, Mohammed Idris J, Okon Abang J, Chukwujekwu
Aneke J, Elvis Chukwu J and Ramat Mohammed J.
The fundamental objective of the Directions is to enable the Federal High Court deal with
AMCON Claims quickly and efficiently and the Directions are to come into effect on 1st March
2013.
The Directions are divided into Seventeen (17) parts containing quite a number of commendable
and innovative provisions which are highlighted hereunder:
PART ONE (GENERAL)
This is the definitive and interpretative part of the Directions. Section 1.1 (7) of the Part
introduces new terminologies and substitutes new terminologies for old terminologies for
instance, the terminology “further and better affidavit” has been substituted for “request for
further information”, “Memorandum of Appearance” has been substituted for “Representation
Notice”.

2
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
The substitution of old terminologies for new terminologies appears to be just for semantic
purposes only as the substitution of the terminologies in my view has little or no legal effect.
PART TWO (CASE MANAGEMENT)
The Courts are empowered to be active in the management of cases by encouraging parties to
use ADR mechanism, use of technology to aid speedy resolution of disputes, schedule time
tables and control the progress of cases. Indeed our Courts have come to recognize that ADR
has come to stay!
Also commendable is the fact that an AMCON Judge is empowered to shorten time for
compliance with any rule, practice direction or court order, bring forward a hearing date and
generally exercise case management discretion powers of his own initiative (Section 2.4).
Generally Judges have an inherent jurisdiction to control proceedings in court and protect a
witness from being battered during Cross-examination. To further back up this power, the
Directions specifically empower an AMCON Judge in Section 2.6 to intervene and curtail
abusive, aggressive, digressive or excessive cross-examination.
PART THREE (COURT DOCUMENTS)
This part contains general provisions on the form of documents for commencing AMCON suits
and the time for filing such claims. A claim is commenced by filing a Claims form and other
support materials which are (i) Statement of Claim (ii) List of witnesses (iii) Witness statements
(iv) Exhibit bundle.
Section 3.1(8) relaxes the rule on frontloading all supporting materials at the time of filing the
Claim form by allowing the Claimant file such materials within 10 days of filling the Claim
Form. All court documents are to be served within 5 days of filing same.

3
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
A radical innovative provision is the use of electronic service as a valid means of service and the
party served electronically has a duty to print out such emailed document. The Directions are
however silent on proof of electronic service when such service is contested! (Section 3.2)
Also commendable is the provision of Section 3.2(4) which makes service of advanced copies of
processes as valid service except for service of the claim form. This is definitely a welcome rule
as it saves time when for one reason or the other a party is unable to file the relevant document
at the registry. Furthermore the party is not at the mercy of the process servers who may not
serve the relevant documents in time.
A defendant served with a Claim form without other supporting materials has 5 days to file his
Representation Notice however when the Claim form is accompanied by all supporting
materials, the Defendant is to file his representation notice and defence bundle within 10 days
of receipt of same. (Section 3.3)
The Claimant has 5 days to file a Reply to the Defence and filing of additional pleadings is not
allowed after the Reply has been filed.
PART FOUR (SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS UNDER THE ACT)
Section 4.1 is a unique provision for the filing of an application before the main claim itself is
filed before the court. This is a great achievement/improvement on our current Rules in
circumstances of extreme urgency, where a threatened act may be done before a claim can be
filed.
PART FIVE (SPEED EFFICIENCY IN COURT PROCEEDINGS)
In a bid to speed up proceedings, the Directions provide that proceedings should be conducted
day to day and the Court may sit on Saturday in the interest of justice. More importantly

4
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
Annual Court Vacation does not apply to the AMCON Track Courts and Judges. Trial is to be
concluded within 3 months from the date the Claim started and Judgment is to be given within
21 days of conclusion of address or soon as possible but not later than 90 days (Sections 5.1 –
5.5.
PART 6 (PLACE OF FILLING AMCON CLAIMS)
A claim is to be filed at the AMCON track court within the jurisdiction of the Defendant or any
of the Defendants and where there is no AMCON Track court in the jurisdiction of the
Defendant, the Claimant is allowed to file a claim in the nearest AMCON Track Court. Filing in
a wrong division will not invalidate the proceedings and an AMCON Judge may proceed to
hear such claim.
PART SEVEN (FORMAL IRREGULARITIES)
Formal defects in documents or proceedings are to be treated as mere technicalities and will not
invalidate the proceedings. This provision is quite impressive as it aims to put a stop to the era
of technicalities where technical objections are brought mainly to defeat a meritorious claim!
PART EIGHT (SERVICE OF DOCUMENTS)
Notable provisions here include Section 8.5 (2) which allows a party to make an oral
application for substituted service and section 8.12 (3) which provides that the Court is allowed
to proceed without proof of service where the party to be served or his counsel admits service
or has a copy of the document to be served even if service was not done in compliance with the
rules or directions. This provision will greatly reduce frivolous jurisdictional objections on
irregular service and is quite commendable!

5
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
Section 8.6 (2) allows direct service on a child over 15 years of age provided the child lives
independently or is engaged in some sort of business.
Section 8.15 is also noteworthy as it recognizes the parties’ choice under a contract to agree on a
method of service and such choice of service is good and sufficient mode of service under the
Directions.
PART NINE (REPRESENTATION NOTICE)
A Representation Notice is to be filed within 5 days of receiving the Claim Form and late filing
attracts a fine of N5, 000.00 for each day of default (Section 9.3). This fine appears to be
excessive considering the fact that 5 days might not be sufficient time for a Defendant to brief a
Counsel however the objective is to curtail Defendants from stalling proceedings.
PART TEN (DEFAULT JUDGMENT)
The provisions on Default Judgment differ from other rules of Court in the sense that an
application here may be made without notice to the Defendant if he has not filed a
representation notice (Section 10.3). Furthermore any evidence relied on by the Claimant in
support of its application for default judgment need not be served on a Defendant who has not
filed a representation notice (Section 10.5 (2).
PART ELEVEN (SUMMARY JUDGEMNT)
This part stipulates rules for summary judgment proceedings as well as conditions to be
satisfied before such summary judgment will be ordered. A Defendant may admit a whole or
part of the claim in writing and the Claimant may apply for Judgment based on the admission
(Section 11.6 & 11.7). A Defendant who has admitted to a claim may request for time within
which to pay and must stipulate a payment plan which shall be filed with his admission.

6
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
If the Claimant accepts the payment plan, Judgment will be entered based on the terms therein
however where the Claimant rejects the Defendant’s payment plan he must file a written notice
to that effect and Judgment will be entered on the sums admitted to be paid at the time and rate
ordered by the Court (Section 11.10 -11.11).
PART TWELVE (OFFERS TO SETTLE AND PAYMENT INTO COURT)
Under this part a Defendant may make an offer in writing to the Claimant with a time limit of
10 days to be liable for the Claimant’s costs at any time even before the Claim form is filed. With
the permission of the Court, the offer may be withdrawn or varied to be less advantageous to
the Offeree before the expiration of the relevant period or before it is accepted by the Offeree by
serving a written notice of withdrawal or change of terms. The Offeror can however withdraw
or change the terms of the offer without the permission of the court at the expiry of the relevant
period provided the Offeree has not accepted the offer (Section 12.1 -12.4).
The offer is accepted when a notice of acceptance is served on the offeror. Acceptance can be
done at any time before trial commences unless the offer is withdrawn. Where trial has
commenced, the permission of the court must be sought before such an offer can be accepted.
(Section 12.6)
Acceptance of an offer operates as a stay of the claim however where the offer affects part of the
claim then acceptance stays only that part of the claim. Where the offer is for payment of a
single sum and it is accepted, then such payment must be paid within 10 days, failure of which
entitles the Offeree to judgment on the unpaid sum. Stay of a claim based on acceptance of an
offer does not affect the Judge’s power to enforce the terms of the accepted offer and to deal
with any question of costs (including interest on costs) relating to the proceedings (Section
12.7).

7
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
The Offer is treated as without prejudice except as to costs, and the fact that such an offer was
made must not be communicated to an AMCON Judge until the case has been decided however
the rule of non-communication to the judge will not apply where (i) proceedings have been
stayed following acceptance of the offer (ii) where the defence of tender before claim is raised
and (iii) where parties agree that it should not apply (Section 12.9).
Where a Defendant relies on the defence of tender before claim, the amount tendered must have
been paid into court and the amount must not be paid out to the Claimant without the
permission of the Court except (i) the offer is accepted without needing the permission of the
court (ii) the Defendant agrees that the sum paid into court be used to satisfy the offer either in
whole or in part (Section 12.11 -12.12).
PART THIRTEEN (INTERIM RELIEFS)
The Court is empowered to grant various orders for interim reliefs. The court may grant an
interim remedy whether or not there is a claim for final remedy of that kind and the fact that a
particular interim relief is not listed in the directions does not affect the Court’s power to grant
same (Section 13.1).
An order for interim relief may be made at any time including before proceedings are started
and after Judgment is given. Where an interim relief is granted before a claim is filed, the court
should give directions requiring a claim to be started. A Defendant may not apply for any of
the interim reliefs stated in section 13.1 before he has filed his representation notice or defence
(Section 13.2).
PART FOURTEEN (APPLICATIONS)
This part deals with general provisions on how an application is made to the Court. Generally
an application must be made to the court where the claim was started, where an application is

8
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
made prior to the claim, it should be made in the court where it is likely that the claim will be
started unless there is a good reason to apply to a different court (Section 14.1).
The Court may deal with an application without hearing same where parties agree on the terms
of the order sought, where parties agree that the court should do so or where the court does not
consider a hearing appropriate. (Section 14.4)
Simple, on the spot applications (request for directions, indulgence) may be made orally and an
AMCON Judge cannot refuse to hear or consider an application merely because it is not written
(Section 14.7).
PART FIFTEEN (ARREST OF ABSCONDING DEFENDANT)
A Claimant may before or after a claim has been filed, apply to court exparte for an order for the
Defendant to show cause why security should not be taken for his appearance to answer to and
satisfy any judgment that may be passed against him in the claim where a Defendant or a
would-be Defendant is about to leave or remove property from Nigeria (Section 15.1)
Whenever the Judge issues a warrant of arrest, the Defendant must be brought before the judge
within 5 days of the execution of the warrant. Such a Defendant may provide sureties or offer
monetary sum for his appearance or in answer to the claim and the court may accept this.
Where he doesn’t do any of this the court may order his detention until the decision of the claim
or until execution of judgment as the case may be. The detention however must not exceed 1
month and the judge may upon just and reasonable cause release the Defendant (Section 15.5).
PART SIXTEEN (FORECLOSURE AND REDEMPTION)
This deals with claims for foreclosure and redemption.

9
OLUYEMISI O. DANSU
Tel: 07025239755; 014548126; 07098504751
PART SEVENTEEN (WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS)
This part provides for general rules for the filing of written submissions.
Overall, there appears to be quite a number of commendable and innovative provisions in the
Directions. The rules if administered efficiently will definitely achieve its objective i.e. quick and
efficient administration of justice in AMCON matters. Certainly this Direction comes at a
significant time and it is indeed a most valuable addition to our Rules of Court.

REVIEW OF AMCON PRACTISE DIRECTIONS 2013

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REVIEW OF AMCON PRACTISE DIRECTIONS 2013