You Should Be in Jail’!…Diepreye Alamieyeseigha’s Kinsmen Come After Tunde Ayeni Over Claims that He Gave N29billion Skye Bank Stolen Money to the late Governor

If Lucifer were the avatar for treachery, he would bow in reverence and gasp-inducing awe to the treacherous grit and gusto of a man like Tunde Ayeni, the disgraced chairman of Skye Bank. In a tableau of treacherous men, Ayeni sticks out like a sore thumb. Those who know him say he never deals with anyone with a clean hand or heart; he is always looking to outsmart and cheat people out of their rights.One of the biggest beneficiaries of the large-heartedness of the late former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief D.S.P Alamieyeseigha, Ayeni found favour and fortune in the deceased. At the time, he was a common sight in the Bayelsa Government House and with his pious posturing, he wormed his way into the hearts of every member of the Alamieyeseigha family. He reportedly even used to tell people in his immediate circle that if not for Alamieyeseigha, he won’t be anywhere near prosperity or prominence. Since the former governor’s death in October 2015, Ayeni has forgotten all his promises to his benefactor’s family. Even things that would benefit them which he could do without breaking a sweat, Ayeni has reportedly refused to do them, making those who knew about their relationship to question his loyalty and sense of history.While the family has decided to leave him to his devices and God, Alamieyeseigha’s kinsmen are now all out to correct the various misrepresentations of the deceased by Ayeni. In a statement released by the kinsmen under the aegis of the Bayelsa Natives in Nigeria and the Diaspora, B.A.N.N.D, the group said they were aghast that despite all that the former governor did to empower Ayeni, he has only repaid him by maliciously lying on his memory and abandoning his family.“It came to our notice that when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arrested Tunde Ayeni for withdrawing N29billion from Skye Bank, he lied to the agency that he gave the money as a bribe to our brother and illustrious son of the Niger Delta, Chief Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha. That is callous and gratuitous. At no time, as far as we know, did Chief Alamieyeseigha have that amount of money in any bank whether in Nigeria or abroad. He was a simple man of the people who gave back to the society that made him. He coveted no riches and he led a simple life.“What Tunde Ayeni did was to just lie on a dead man who cannot defend himself. This is a betrayal of the friendship we are aware that they maintained while the former governor was alive. Ayeni merely played to the gallery and decided to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it. This is not what friendship is about. And we have no doubt that the man (the former governor) must be turning in his grave at this deliberate and disdainful desecration of his memory.”The group declared that its investigations at the EFCC showed that that after his initial grandstanding, Ayeni sang like a bird to investigators and went on a lying spree against prominent dead Nigerians including Alamieyeseigha. “He lied that he gave N29billion to Alamieyeseigha as a bribe but we found out that it was part of the money that he diverted to buy NITEL and MTEL which he renamed NTEL. He was using NTEL’s assets to offset his indebtedness to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, in a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” the statement posited.The B.A.N.N.D further stated that beyond the egregious lie of Ayeni, they were astounded that since Alamieyeseigha’s death, he has turned his back on his benefactor’s family, which it described as “grave sin against man and God. He was never there for the family even when he could have. We are sure that at the appropriate time, representatives of the family will address their grouse with him.” The group further stated that they were not surprised at Ayeni’s capricious about-face; “It is his stock-in-trade. It is why those he calls his friends are wary of having any business or personal dealing with him because there is no atom of loyalty in his veins.”While pleading with well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on Ayeni to desist from lying on the memory of Chief Alamieyeseigha who, sadly, is no longer in a position to defend himself, the group called on the federal government to investigate the NTEL transaction.