Aide Faults EFCC for Declaring Timipre Sylva Wanted, Says Notice is Politically Motivated

Julius Bokoru, special assistant on media and public affairs to Timipre Sylva, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, has described the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) declaration of his principal as wanted as part of a politically motivated campaign.

Earlier on Monday, the EFCC declared Sylva wanted over an alleged case of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of $14,859,257.

In a statement signed by Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesperson, the commission said the funds were part of investments by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) into Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited. The agency urged anyone with information on Sylva’s whereabouts to contact its offices or the nearest police station.

Reacting to the development, Bokoru described the EFCC’s announcement as a “digital proclamation” intended to stir public hostility against Sylva.

He noted that the former minister had not been formally informed before the notice was made public.

Bokoru said: “It is, to say the least, curious that what was once whispered in corridors as a “coup matter” has now quietly metamorphosed into a financial allegation. The same shadowy forces that once sought to criminalise Sylva politically now appear to have reinvented themselves as fiscal crusaders. There must, undoubtedly, be an explanation for this cinematic transition, from rumour to reinvention, from one carefully scripted accusation to another.

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“Chief Sylva remains, without equivocation, the target of a coordinated and calculated political onslaught. His recent travails bear an uncanny resemblance to the trials of Job in Holy Scripture, each ordeal arriving with near-mathematical precision, each accusation discredited only for another to appear. These are no coincidences; they are the deliberate machinations of those who dread Sylva’s enduring political relevance and moral resolve.

“For clarity, I have not been in direct communication with Chief Sylva. However, from available information and from prior official briefings, it is important to restate that Chief Sylva will, in line with his respect for lawful institutions and due process, honour the invitation of the EFCC once he concludes his ongoing medical check-up in the United Kingdom.

“At this stage, one might jest that only the Boys’ Brigade of Nigeria and the Man’O’War remain uninvited to this theatre of persecution. The desperation to sully Sylva’s name knows no restraint, its sponsors are zealous, its intentions transparent, and its malice unmistakable. Yet, let it be categorically stated: Chief Sylva has clean hands. He has not diverted a single dollar, nor has he betrayed the trust reposed in him by the Nigerian people. The refinery project in question is a legitimate, transparent, and verifiable undertaking, subject to due process and traceable documentation.

“To our friends, allies, and well-wishers: this, too, shall pass. Truth, though often delayed, remains immutable. It neither bows to propaganda nor perishes in the tumult of falsehood. Those engineering this relentless campaign of defamation will not prevail, for light, by its very nature, must always outshine darkness.”

Bokoru also addressed reports from October that soldiers raided Sylva’s residences in Abuja and Bayelsa, arresting his brother over alleged links to a failed plot to overthrow the Bola Tinubu administration. While confirming the raid, he insisted the claims were politically motivated.