Nigerian businessman Tunde Ayeni arrested by EFCC over alleged diversion of N36.5 billion and $30 million from Polaris Bank

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested Tunde Ayeni, the former chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, in Abuja on Thursday over the alleged diversion and misappropriation of N36.5 billion and $30 million obtained from Polaris Bank through companies linked to him, TheCable reported on April 24.

Ayeni, 59, is currently in EFCC custody as investigations continue. EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale confirmed the arrest but declined to provide further details. He is expected to be arraigned once the commission concludes its probe.

According to sources cited by TheCable, the funds were secured as loans for specific purposes including marine security financing, an electricity distribution contract and estate development, but were allegedly channelled instead into the acquisition of telecom assets linked to NITEL and MTEL through a NATCOM account. The commission is also investigating approximately 12 companies linked to Ayeni that were allegedly used as vehicles to obtain the loans from Polaris Bank.

A long-running legal fight

This is not Ayeni's first arrest by the EFCC. His history with the anti-graft agency stretches back a decade, making the April 24 arrest the latest chapter in a case that has moved between multiple courts without reaching a final resolution.

In November 2016, the EFCC first picked him up in connection with allegations involving former FCT Minister Bala Mohammed and the acquisition of 54 Abuja land plots. He was released without charge at the time. In December 2018, following the collapse of Skye Bank and the CBN's creation of Polaris Bank as a bridge institution, the EFCC detained him again and filed charges at a Federal High Court in Maitama. He was arraigned before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba on 8-count money laundering charges involving N4.75 billion and $5 million, with former Skye Bank MD Timothy Oguntayo co-accused. Both pleaded not guilty.

On March 6, 2019, the EFCC brought a separate action before Justice Valentine Ashi of the FCT High Court, Apo, charging Ayeni with criminal breach of trust amounting to N4.597 billion. Again, he pleaded not guilty.

In February 2025, lawyers representing Ayeni-linked companies argued in court that the underlying loans in question had been fully repaid in 2017, describing the continued prosecution as "witch-hunting, intimidation, and harassment." The EFCC had not yet replied to the preliminary objection at that point.

The current arrest introduces a new and significantly larger figure. The N36.5 billion and $30 million being investigated dwarfs the sums cited in the 2018 and 2019 charges, and the NATCOM/NITEL connection adds a fresh dimension to what had previously been framed primarily as a banking fraud case.

Who Ayeni is

Ayeni was born in Iyah-Gbede, Ijumu, in Kogi State, and built his early career in law. He graduated with honours from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1990, was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1991, and worked at Rodco Nigeria Limited before setting up his own law firm, Legal Resources Alliance, in 1994.

His transition into banking came through Bond Bank, which he co-founded in 2000. When the CBN ordered a consolidation of Nigeria's banking sector in 2005, Bond Bank merged with 4 others to form Skye Bank, one of Nigeria's larger tier-2 lenders. Ayeni joined the Skye Bank board as a director in 2008 and became chairman in December 2011.

During his tenure, Skye Bank became heavily entangled in a series of large-scale acquisitions. Ayeni was a central figure in NATCOM, the consortium that acquired the moribund national telecoms carrier NITEL and its mobile subsidiary MTEL from the federal government in 2014, relaunching the combined entity as ntel. Through a separate vehicle, IEDM (Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Ltd), he led a bid to acquire the Ibadan and Yola electricity distribution companies in 2013 following the privatisation of the national power distribution network.

These were described publicly at the time as landmark achievements. The new board of Skye Bank saw them differently. A 2017 letter from Skye Bank's post-intervention management to then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo alleged that Ayeni used his position as chairman to obtain insider loans well above regulatory thresholds to fund these acquisitions. "The bank's total exposure to Ayeni as of the date is about N70 billion," the letter said. "It is clear that he used his position as the chairman of the bank to obtain inside loans well above the regulatory thresholds."

When the CBN revoked Skye Bank's licence in September 2018, the bank had non-performing loans and capital adequacy problems that regulators attributed in part to the concentrated insider lending. Polaris Bank was created as the successor institution with AMCON injecting fresh capital.

Ayeni has consistently denied wrongdoing. In an interview published in June 2025, he suggested political motivations behind the prosecutions and said the true story of Skye Bank's collapse had yet to be fully told.

He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the Niger in September 2014, the same year he became a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He holds an honorary doctorate in business administration from Achievers University. He is married with 3 children and founded the Oluwatoyin Ayeni Educational Foundation in 1999, which awards annual scholarships to students from his hometown.

Whether this new arrest leads to fresh charges or folds into existing proceedings will become clearer when the EFCC concludes its investigations. The scale of the alleged funds and the involvement of 12 linked companies suggests the commission is building a broader case than any it has previously brought against him.