*Says, she “used Juju ‘charm’ on him

By Francesca Hangeior

Tunde Ayeni, the former chairman of the defunct Skye Bank, is the subject of a messy paternity scandal involving his former mistress, Adaobi Alagwu.

Abiola Ayeni, the wife of the chairman of defunct Skye Bank, Tunde Ayeni, has accused an Abuja-based lawyer, Adaobi Alagwu, of using diabolical means to bewitch her husband.

She said that “money makes a man misbehave. Friends make a man misbehave, and strange women seduce men with all manner of Jazz (juju) to make a man misbehave.”

Mrs Ayeni in an interview said that her husband was “an unsuspecting and naive victim” of Ms Alagwu, his one-time mistress whom she accused of being a “diabolical … runs girl” with plans of foisting the paternity of another man’s child on her husband.

She said, “It may appear as if my husband’s name is always associated with messy affairs with one lady or the other, but it doesn’t change my opinion of my husband, and you cannot convince me that my husband is a flirt because I didn’t marry him as a flirt.”

Despite Mr Ayeni admitting to having been in a brief relationship with Ms Alagwu sometime in 2019, Mrs Ayeni insists that her husband wasn’t the father of Ms Alagwu’s child.

She said that it didn’t matter if her husband of 31 years had dated Ms Alagwu, that on the controversy surrounding the paternity of Ms Alagwu’s child, her husband had informed her that the child was not his and that she believed and would “stand by him anytime, any day.”

Mrs Ayeni accused Ms Alagwu of being a “desperate gold digger … who thinks she can become Mrs Ayeni by merely pinning a child on her highest-paying victim.”

Suggesting that her husband had been under Ms Alagwu’s spell, Mrs Ayeni queried: “How can a man who is happily married for 31 years and in his right senses be spending lavishly on a prostitute of that age? Such magnitude of spending should raise the question: ‘In return for what…five-minute pleasure?’

The entrepreneur said no amount of evidence of infidelity against his husband would change her opinion of him, suggesting that his fling with the mistress may have been influenced by bad company.

Continuing, she said, “Even with his fellow men, my husband is too trusting. So, you can imagine the level of his nonchalance and how it led to such a mess. How can a man who is happily married and in his right senses be spending lavishly on a prostitute of that age?

“Such magnitude of spending should raise the question ‘In return for what…five-minute pleasure, you should suspect that a man is under a spell. So, whatever she claims my husband bought for her, she knows what she did to get it from him. But that season has ended. I promise you.”

When asked how the scandal has affected her marriage, Mrs Ayeni said, “My marriage is standing solid. My husband’s love for me is not threatened and he is not lost. My children are unmoved by the claim and my husband has no children outside of the three we have together.”

“There were some publications about some incident and people started calling me about it. They asked me how I was feeling or coping and I told them that I was fine. I don’t listen to what they say about my husband outside and I don’t need anyone to tell me who my husband is. I have my husband beside me.

“When spending becomes unusual, you should suspect that a man is under a spell. So, whatever she claims my husband bought for her, she knows what she did to get it from him.”

“And it is quite surprising that despite her degree in Law, she needs somebody to tell her that a child is not a marriage certificate! Neither does a child offer her security to maintain a fake lifestyle that she has become accustomed to.

“Anyway, she has been warned through our lawyers to desist from parading herself as Mrs Ayeni because she is not, and she will never be as the Lord lives.

“My husband and I are legally married. As for her calling her child by my husband’s surname, Ayeni is many. The child is not Tunde Ayeni’s child. Period! When she is tired of calling the child the borrowed name, she will change it to her father’s name,” Mrs Ayeni added.