EFCC didn’t invite Sylva before declaring him wanted — Spokesman

Julius Bokoru, the spokesman of a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, has said that his boss will make himself available to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), adding that he was not invited by the anti-graft agency before the declaration.

The spokesman said this in a statement he issued on Monday following the declaration of Sylva wanted by the EFCC on the same day.

In the statement, Bokoru faulted the decision of the EFCC to declare the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources wanted without a prior invitation.

He said: “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday took to social media to announce, quite unceremoniously, that it had declared Chief Timipre Sylva wanted. 

“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.

“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.

“Chief Timipre 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 Timipre Sylva has clean hands. 

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“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.”

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