Earlier today news broke out that
the EFCC has returned 48 property that was seized from former governor, Timipre Sylva in 2013. Sylva has come out to refute the claim. In a statement issued in Yenagoa by his media adviser, Mr. Doifie
Buokoribo, he described the report as strange, speculative and malicious, saying that there was no time he or the court confirmed that he owned such property. Sylva said he only owned three houses in Abuja which he built before he became the governor of Bayelsa. He therefore, threatened legal action against publishers.
The statement read thus:
“We have a read report in a national newspaper,
which was reproduced by a few online publications and in the social
media, claiming that Chief Timipre Sylva had ‘retrieved 48 of his
property which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission seized
during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.’
“We view this report with disgust, given its unconcealed speculation and vindictiveness regarding such a sensitive matter.
“For
the avoidance of doubt, Sylva does not own 48 buildings in Abuja or
anywhere in the world. So the issue of reclaiming ‘48 houses’ does not
arise. He has only three houses in Abuja, which he built before he
became the governor of Bayelsa State.
“This point has been made
several times before, and neither EFCC nor those who had used EFCC as a
tool of persecution against Sylva during the Goodluck Jonathan
administration have contradicted this fact.
“EFCC had taken their
allegations of property ownership against Sylva to several courts
without establishing anything against the former governor during the
Jonathan era.
“Beyond the commission’s routine media prosecution, no
court of law has found Sylva guilty of any crime. Indeed, in the course
of the trials at the Federal High Court, Abuja, owners of some of the
properties wrongfully attributed to him joined to claim their houses.
“The
court ruled on the matter of the said 48 properties since 2013. Why is
it now a subject of media attention? Clearly, this is a sponsored
publication.
“Sylva takes great exception to the wholly speculative
and vindictive report on the matter. He frowns on the malicious audacity
of the publishers of such a story, or their sponsors, despite warnings
by the courts against media prosecutions and persecutions like this one,
and the attempts by the EFCC to burnish its image that was mindlessly
battered during the last administration.
“After failing to prove any
crime against Sylva in a democratic court of law for the past four
years, this latest media show is another desperate attempt to rubbish
him politically.
“To correct the wrong impression that sponsors of
the falsehood against him are, obviously, trying to create, Sylva has
instructed his lawyers to take legal action against publishers of the
fake story.”
