Tunde Ayeni and Timothy Oguntayo, former chairman and managing director respectively of Skye Bank Plc (now Polaris Bank) – – have been arraigned in relation to alleged money laundering offences involving about N4.75billion and $5million.
Ayeni and Oguntayo were arraigned on Monday before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja on an eight-count charge brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The duo, who was accused of committing the alleged offences between 2014 and 2015, pleaded not guilty when the charge was read.
Their lawyers applied for bail on their behalf, applications the judge granted, admitting each of the defendants to bail at N50million each.
The EFCC had last week s detained the former chairman of Skye Bank Plc for alleged fraud.
Particularly, the EFCC is charging him for mismanaging the funds of the bank which almost led to its collapse.
The anti-graft agency had entered into an agreement with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to check out some banks and its officials who facilitated the huge non-performing loans in AMCON’s portfolio.
Ahmed Kuru, managing director of AMCON, had said the decision was for both agencies to consolidate on the gains in the areas of investigating, prosecuting and compelling all obligors of AMCON to recover N906bn from debtors.
Similarly, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, managing director and chief executive of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation(NDIC), had disclosed recently that Ayeni and former Managing Director, Timothy Oguntayo, are being investigated for their roles in the bank.
The NDIC boss said investigations have already commenced and law agencies will do their work once the investigations have been concluded.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, NDIC and AMCON had revoked the operating licence of Skye Bank following its financial instability, thus necessitating the regulators to rename it Polaris Bank and a capital injection of about $2bn.
“They (former directors of defunct Skye Bank) are being investigated and I can assure that when the time comes, the necessary relevant security and law enforcement agencies will do their work”, he had said.
