Society Gists

Things are not looking bright at the newly christened Polaris bank.

At the center of the crisis rocking the the bank formerly known as Skye bank is its managing director chief executive Tokunboh Abiru.

Top of the allegations against the current management of Polaris Bank led by Abiru by the shareholders is connivance with the Centra Bank Nigeria to allegedly defraud them of their investment.

Insiders explained that with the recent takeover of Skye Bank Plc by Polaris Bank, shareholders are now at the risk of losing an estimated N10.69 billion, being the value of the shareholders’ fund.
That is not all, insiders at the bank said that the shareholders are equally calling for the sack of the MD; “The criss-cross in the statement of the CBN has thus seen questions being asked with no one ready to answer them.”

“There are some who said if the interim management set up by the CBN to manage Skye Bank for two years could not prevent its eventual fall, why keep the team to run the bridge bank.”
“Also, there are those who insist that there is more to the whole development, as they keep asking if the bank would have been put to rest if it was really doing well. There are also those who believe that the hands of the CBN Governor Emefiele might be tied, hence he is maintaining the set of management and the board.”

“Whatever is the situation, one basic truth is that Polaris Bank in the hands of the same management that couldn’t salvage Skye Bank Plc is only poised to fail except of course if the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) can quickly find a buyer before the invested N786 billion is known.”
A Financial Analyst, Tunde Biobaku, said “when a bank is recapitalized, there is always the need to name a new board who will handle the new investment. If you use the same set of people, they will run down the business just like they initially did to make the bank need recapitalization in the first place, so what the CBN has done is very confusing because the same guys that couldn’t do well with Skye Bank are now managing Polaris Bank, the end result is already clear, crystal clear. They would leave Polaris Bank worse than they met it, you mark my words.