Polaris Bank In Loan Scam Scandal, as Ex Staff Petitions IGP

• Bayo Adetu
• May 19, 2025
• BUSINESS, NEWS
• Polaris Bank
• 0 Comments

The management of Polaris Bank is currently enmeshed in a loan scam scandal, prompting a former staff, Mr Udeme Akpan Ukpe to petition the police over what he termed illegal deductions from his account by the bank. 

Mr. Udeme was a staff of the now defunct Skye Bank (now Polaris Bank) and worked with a colleague, Mr. Jacobs Adeyinka Alexander in the department of Information and Technology of the bank. In November 2015, Udeme and another female colleague stood as guarantors for Jacobs when he took a N2,205,000.00 staff loan from the bank.

However, not too long after the loan was disbursed to Mr Jacobs, he tendered his resignation letter, and it was accepted by the bank’s HCM, while the guarantors were not informed about the development. It was when Jacobs started defaulting in his loan repayment that they knew what was going on. Even when Jacobs later visited the bank for a restructuring of the loan, the management still didn’t inform the guarantors.

It was when Mr Jacobs failed to fulfil his payment obligation after the loan was restructured that the guarantors were contacted.

In a petition dated 8 May, 2025 to the Inspector General of Police through the Area A Commander, Lion Building Lagos, Udeme explained that all efforts to contact Mr Jacobs proved abortive as his rude response was that he has an understanding with the bank team, hence, the running restructured loan. Further enquiries revealed that one Mr. Tunji Bajowa, head of loan recovery whose office is located at Polaris Bank Ltd, Churchgate Building, Victoria Island and Mr. Fidelis were the bank handlers Mr. Udeme was relating with in respect of this matter.

Consequently, the bank loan handlers hand-twisted Mr. Udeme to accept repaying the loan from his monthly salary. Twenty Four months repayment period, zero COT/ monthly interest, Payment to be remitted from staff savings account -1020245278, payment to be remitted quarterly and payment source to be from staff salary, were the terms enforced on Mr. Udeme as a guarantor simply because he still wanted to keep his job with the bank as a breadwinner of his family.

Meanwhile, when he asked the loan handlers about the effort they have made to recover the loan from the original debtor, it was misinterpreted as a threat. Arguably, this only makes one to ponder if there was something sinister about the case.

According to Udeme, there are questions that need to be answered by the bank. Did the HCM did their due diligence to confirm Mr. Jacobs Adeyinka Alexander’s new employer after he left the bank to see how his repayment will continue before accepting his resignation? Why was a restructure of the loan facility agreed without the knowledge of the guarantors? What effort has the bank made to recover funds from Mr. Jacobs? Why did the bank refuse to pay Mr. Udeme his benefits/ emolument? Why did the bank throw another account into debit separate from the one agreed with him? How much has Mr. Jacobs paid? Was the second guarantor aside Mr. Udeme also forced to pay too?

It was gathered that Mr. Jacobs Adeyinka Alexander left the defunct Skye Bank for Unity Bank, so a proper follow up by the HCM/loan handlers should have helped recover the facility seamlessly instead of Mr. Udeme being used as the sole sacrificial lamb, bearing the consequences of a Delinquent Account alone.

In October 2018, a negative sum of N2,511,907.18 (Two Million, Five Hundred and Eleven Thousand, Nine Hundred and Seven Naira, Eighteen Kobo) was posted to Mr. Udeme’s staff account without recourse, only to be told after probe that the unknown posted money was the staff loan granted to Mr. Jacobs Adeyinka Alexander.

As if that was not enough, on March 29, 2019 the bank handed Mr Udeme “a service no longer required” directive with effective date of April 1, 2019.

Despite not working with the bank again, Mr Udeme has thrived to keep servicing the forced loan by reducing it to a tune of negative N1,881,414.45 which was brought forth from the agreed serving loan account (staff saving) 1020245278 to (staff current) 1780140888. As at Close of April 2019, the forced obligation was already more than half the amount serviced, leaving the amount at negative N1,215,324.21.

Furthermore, Mr. Jacob’s loan obligation forcefully dwelling on Mr. Udeme’s account is a negative of N8,392,339.02 with monthly debit interest capital of 248,317.13 that just accumulated and inputted on the account on the 31st October 2024. What is surprising here is that how and why the figure of negative N8,392,339.02 is tagged to the account 1780140888, where the account owner was never granted such loan and was not in the twisted inherited/restructured staff loan of Mr. Jacobs. Again, zero interest was the forced loan on Mr. Udeme, why has it grown to N8m plus?