N36bn fraud — Ex-Skye Bank chairman Tunde Ayeni nabbed by EFCC

By: Abudu Olalekan

Just like that—Tunde Ayeni’s back in the headlines. And not the good kind.

The former chairman of Skye Bank? Yeah, that guy. Arrested. Abuja. Thursday night. Now sitting inside an EFCC cell. No fanfare. No warning. Just cuffs and silence.

We’re talking serious numbers here: N36.54 billion. Plus $30 million on the side. Like pocket change if you’re a cartoon villain. But this ain’t fiction.

Sources close to the case told us the feds have been quietly building this for months. Turns out, while everyone thought the Skye Bank saga was buried, EFCC operatives were flipping pages, tracing wires, following the money—from Polaris Bank (yeah, the one that rose from Skye’s ashes) straight into a web of shell companies allegedly tied to Ayeni.

Loans were meant for legit stuff—marine security contracts, power distribution projects, real estate. Sounds noble, right? Except… the cash never made it there. Instead? Redirected. Funneled. Slipped sideways into the NATCOM account—used, investigators say, to buy up chunks of NITEL/MTEL assets. Fancy move. Risky one.

Twelve companies. Twelve. All allegedly linked to him. All used to pull loans from Polaris. Depositors’ money. Your auntie’s savings. Your cousin’s business capital. Gone. Rebranded as “investment.” Then vanished into corporate Bermuda.

One insider put it bluntly:

“These weren’t mistakes. This was architecture. Built to move billions without blinking.”

Ayeni’s expected to face court soon. “In due course,” they say. Translation? They’re still connecting dots. Dot by dot. Name by name.

Reached for comment? EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale kept it short:

“Yes, he’s in custody.”
Then—click. Phone down. No elaboration. Classic EFCC. Let the silence do the talking.

Funny thing is—Ayeni used to be untouchable. Boardrooms. High-profile deals. Media interviews where he spoke about “financial discipline” and “corporate governance.” Now? His legacy’s being rewritten—in handcuffs and forensic spreadsheets.

People are whispering. Was this coming? Probably. After Skye collapsed and Polaris took over, someone had to answer for the black hole in the books. Looks like Ayeni’s turn just came up.

And N36 billion? That’s not just fraud. That’s a national wound.