EFCC boss reportedly travels with embattled Chair of defunct Skye Bank, agency reacts

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has debunked a story claiming that its Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, has travelled abroad with the embattled former Chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, Tunde Ayeni.

The Eagle Online recalls that Ayeni has been in the eye of the storm over the running of Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank.

Ayeni and the Managing Director of the defunct Skye Bank, Timothy Oguntayo, had been dragged to court by the EFCC over a N25.4 billion alleged fraud case.

The case was eventually withdrawn after a settlement was reportedly reached, with those involved parting with N15 billion.

Reacting to the latest association of Ayeni with its Chairman, the EFCC said in a statement on Friday: “The attention of the Commission has been drawn to a so-called ‘exclusive’ news report making the rounds on social media to the effect that the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa and former Chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, Mr. Tunde Ayeni, are travelling together, abroad, on a clandestine, self-serving mission.

“The story, which vainly tries to push a certain malodorous agenda, is absolutely FALSE.

“If it were not for its potential to confound and confuse the unwary, the Commission would have ignored the story. However, there is every need to set the facts straight.

“To start with, there was never a meeting and certainly no ‘plan’ between the EFCC Chair and Mr. Ayeni to go anywhere together.

“Furthermore, while the EFCC Chairman is at this time on an approved mission abroad, Ayeni, whom the fiction-turned-news story says is on a clandestine trip with Mr. Bawa, is, from checks, right here in Nigeria. A cursory check would have confirmed that.

“If the design is to get the Commission to compromise its mandate to investigate and prosecute all cases of economic and financial crimes, then the purveyors of the tendentious story have failed. Woefully.

“No matter what, the Commission will be guided only by that mandate and its very clear Standard Operating Procedure and WILL NOT be blackmailed or act in any way predetermined or teleguided by private interests. The EFCC WILL ONLY pursue the public interest as defined by the law establishing the Commission.”