March 22, 2025 – Union Bank Nigeria Plc, a festering blight on Nigeria’s financial landscape, has once again proven it’s a serial offender in the art of fraud and deception. Dragged into Lagos’ Special Offences Court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a N76 billion ($49.5 million) and $31.5 million fraud tied to Arik Air, the bank’s latest disgrace is a neon-lit billboard of its rotten core. This isn’t an aberration—it’s Union Bank doing what it does best: lying, cheating, and dodging accountability. From falsifying statements to burying evidence, their playbook is as predictable as it is vile, and it’s high time judicial and regulatory hammers come crashing down to end this cesspit of corporate rot.
In the N76 billion Arik Air scandal, Union Bank’s treachery shines like a festering sore. The EFCC alleges that in 2011, the bank fed AMCON a steaming pile of lies about Arik Air’s loans and guarantees, claiming they were “performing” to offload a N71 billion liability onto the public entity. This wasn’t a misstep—it was a deliberate, slimy con, orchestrated to fleece AMCON and leave Nigeria’s economy bleeding. Peter Omokaro, a former Union Bank insider, testified on March 17, 2025, that the bank guaranteed Arik Air’s aircraft deals with HSBC and US EXIM Bank, only to pawn them off to AMCON after the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2009 takeover. A secret 2011 London meeting—excluding Arik Air—sealed the betrayal, with Union Bank slinking into the obligor role despite no defaults, as confirmed by ex-Group Executive Director Augustine Obigwe. False statements? Check. Breach of fiduciary duty? Double check. It’s Union Bank’s signature move.