Timipre Sylva
Can you imagine one man who found his way into public service acquiring as much as 48 houses in Abuja in just four years?
48 houses in four years? Where did that happen?
Are you not in this country? Did you not hear that the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva has 48 houses, which have now been seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)?
Oh, is it that one? But the former governor has denied that he does not have 48 houses anywhere in the world. Let alone in once city, called Abuja. He has said he own only three houses in Abuja.
Hmmm, what did you expect him to say? To admit that he has 48 houses? You want Nigerians to mob him? Don’t you know it is a howler? Don’t you know the ways of Nigerian politicians? Didn’t former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State own 72 houses on just one street?
Nooooo, Let’s be fair. Sylva has maintained that he has only three houses in Abuja, and that he had acquired them before he got into office as governor.
Forget such stories, my brother. What was he doing to have had three houses in Abuja before becoming a governor? Carrying brief case for Edmud Daukoru? And in any case, do you believe that he had three houses before becoming a governor, and after becoming a governor, he did not have even just one more? Do you believe such verbiage?
Look, it is his word against EFCC’s. And don’t forget that the EFCC is a drama expert. It may have made up the allegation so it could sufficiently stink in the public’s moral code, so that the public outcry would be denouncing enough, prior to the final nailing of their victim.
I don’t get what you are driving at. It is not mystery. The EFCC was careful to list all the houses, their addresses, their types and all that. Has anybody come forward to say that some of the houses listed as Sylva’s own belongs to him or her? Does the FCDA not have a list of who owns what house in Abuja? Has anybody gone to verify and confirmed that the EFCC is lying?
We are used to the antics of the EFCC. It is a specialist in noise making, corralling the public to help in prosecuting an accused, and you see that it often fails in court, because the court of public opinion is not the same as the court of law.
Well, it is not for us to keep arguing about it here. The point to make is that Sylva has been accused, he has to go to court to clear his name. For a man accused of embezzling billions of naira that belongs to his people, the issue of owning 48 houses should not be a surprise. Do not forget that a panel set up by the Gov Dickson administration had also indicted Sylva of gross financial mismanagement. So don’t be quick to put anything beyond Nigerian politicians, especially Sylva.
Why single Sylva out?
Nothing in particular. But according to James Hadley Chase, only the guilty are afraid. Do you recall that a week before EFCC seized those houses, Sylva had obtained a court injunction forbidding the EFCC from tampering with his houses? How did he know what the EFCC was planning? And why the hasty pre-empt? If he is indeed innocent, the law will exonerate him. That antic of rushing to court to secure a phony injunction smells like a familiar tactic employed by a former neighbouring governor who, curiously, secured a court injunction perpetually forbidding the EFCC from probing or quizzing him.
You talk as if you don’t know the Nigerian justice system. If they don’t secure such injunctions, a strange twist could easily be introduced to their cases and before you know it, they are in Gashua or Kirikiri prisons.
And truly, that’s where many of them should be, not in Maitama or Asokoro district driving power jeeps and all such vexatious warts. They are the same persons compromising the judiciary for their own selfish ends. So don’t stand there and label the judiciary as if it is all populated by baptized crooks.
Look, we aint making any headway in this discussion. Let us leave it all for the courts to determine. Let them establish whether or not Sylva indeed owns the 48 houses. And whenever they give their verdict, we can resume the discussion.
Hmmm, that means we may continue the discussion in heaven. Good day.