The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday declared former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, wanted over alleged involvement in the dishonest conversion of $14,859,257 linked to a refinery project in Bayelsa State.

According to reports, the funds were part of the money injected by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) into Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for the construction of a modular refinery in the state.

According to POLITICS NIGERIA, it was gathered that the anti-graft agency is investigating how the funds were handled during Sylva’s tenure as minister.

The EFCC said it obtained a warrant for Sylva’s arrest from a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on November 6. Justice D. I. Dipeolu directed that “a warrant is issued to the applicant or any officer of the commission, police, or any law enforcement officer for the arrest of the respondent for the purpose of bringing him before the commission to answer to the criminal offence he is alleged to have committed.”

The investigation is also connected to alleged financial irregularities involving the former Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote.

He was earlier questioned over the management of the Brass Energy Park project. The EFCC had also arrested the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, Mr. Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, for alleged diversion of funds and money laundering.

Findings by the commission revealed that NCDMB, under Wabote’s leadership, disbursed about $35 million to Akindele’s company for a 2,000-barrel-per-day refinery, power plant, gas plant, and jetty at the Brass Free Trade Zone.

However, since the release of the funds in 2020, the project has reportedly recorded very little progress.

Sylva, who served as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources between 2019 and 2023, has denied the allegations. He described them as politically motivated and aimed at tarnishing his reputation.

His media aide, Julius Bokoru, in a statement, faulted the EFCC’s action, saying it lacked due process and was done “unceremoniously.” He said there was no official communication to Sylva before his name was made public.

Bokoru described the move as “a sudden digital proclamation,” claiming it was intended to “inflame public sentiment” and sustain what he called a political witch-hunt.

“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,” he stated.

He also alleged that the former Bayelsa governor was being targeted in a “coordinated and calculated political onslaught.” According to him, Sylva’s name was being dragged into controversies to weaken his political standing in the state.

Bokoru said his principal would honour any lawful invitation from the EFCC once he returns from medical treatment in the United Kingdom.

He maintained that “Chief Timipre Sylva has clean hands. He has not diverted a single dollar, nor has he betrayed the trust reposed in him by the Nigerian people.”

He urged Sylva’s supporters to remain calm, expressing confidence that the truth would prevail in the end.

“Those engineering this relentless campaign of defamation will not prevail for light, by its very nature, must always outshine darkness,” he said.

However, Sylva who served as Bayelsa State Governor between 2007 and 2012, had earlier faced similar corruption-related allegations during his time in office, which were later struck out by a Federal High Court in Abuja.