A former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, will honour the invitation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after his medical checkup in the United Kingdom, his aide, Julius Bokoru, has said.
On Monday, the anti-graft agency had declared the former Minister of Petroleum Resources wanted in connection with an alleged case of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of $14,859,257.
But in a statement, Bokoru accused the EFCC of not communicating with Sylva before a “sudden digital proclamation” declaring his principal wanted.
“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,” Bokoru said on Monday.
He said, “No formal communication was extended to him, no established protocol observed—only a sudden digital proclamation designed, it would seem, to inflame public sentiment and manufacture yet another episode of orchestrated hostility.”
According to the EFCC, the said funds was part of the monies injected by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) into Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for the building of a refinery.
The agency explained that it got a warrant for the arrest of the ex-minister at the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on November 6, 2025.
This was after soldiers raided the former governor’s residence over an alleged link to a coup plot being investigated by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
The operation was carried out by a special military team in the early hours of Tuesday, October 25, 2025
Channels Television learned that the raid was the aftermath of intelligence reports linking Sylva to some alleged secret meetings between him and some of the detained military officers accused of plotting to overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s government.
Bokoru, however, claimed the developments suggest his principal is a victim of “coordinated and calculated political onslaught”.
“These are no coincidences; they are the deliberate machinations of those who dread Sylva’s enduring political relevance and moral resolve,” he wrote.
“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,”Bokoru said.
“There must, undoubtedly, be an explanation for this cinematic transition—from rumour to reinvention, from one carefully scripted accusation to another.”
