…Ex-governor accuses anti-graft agency of acting as APC organ

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, who has been declared wanted over an alleged $14.86 million fraud, to make himself available for questioning.

The commission’s spokesman, Dele Oyewale, stated this on Monday while reacting to Sylva’s allegation that the anti-graft agency had recently conducted itself more as an organ of the All Progressives Congress (APC) than as an institution of the state.

“He has been declared wanted; he should make himself available to the commission,” Oyewale said when asked to respond to the allegation.

Sylva, a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, resigned from the APC on Monday, accusing the ruling party of abandoning its founding ideals and the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of disappointing the majority of Nigerians.

In his resignation letter addressed to the APC chairman of Ward 4 in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Sylva said his decision followed consultations with his family, associates, colleagues and sympathisers.

“Having consulted widely with my family, associates, colleagues and sympathisers, I wish to formally tender my resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC), with immediate effect,” the letter read.

Sylva, who described himself as a founding member of the APC, said he was saddened by what he described as the abandonment of the ideals upon which the party was founded.

“As a founding member of the APC, and one who joined other well-meaning Nigerians in building the Party with sweat and money, it is deeply saddening to witness how the ideals we espoused have been so thoroughly and unrecognisably thwarted,” he said.

Explaining his decision to leave the party, Sylva said he could no longer belong to an organisation whose leaders believed that “all is fair in politics”.

“All cannot be fair in any endeavour of life. The demands of basic decency and morality forbid it. Unfortunately, this mentality appears to underpin virtually every action, and even inaction, of this administration,” he said.
He also accused the APC-led Federal Government of disappointing Nigerians.

“The present Government, formed under the banner of the APC we once loved, has disappointed the vast majority of Nigerians. And I can see neither a credible attempt nor any possibility of a revamp,” he said.

Sylva’s resignation letter was delivered electronically and copied to the APC National Chairman, the Executive Chairman of the EFCC and the Bayelsa State Chairman of the party.

The former governor also specifically copied the EFCC, saying the agency had recently conducted itself more as an organ of the APC than as a state institution.

“I am deliberately putting the EFCC in copy of this letter because, of late, it has conducted itself more as an organ of the APC than as an institution of State,” Sylva said.

He added that he was aware his decision could lead to increased scrutiny against him and his associates, but said he was prepared to take the risk.

“I am fully aware that this action of mine may invite a redoubled witch-hunt against me and my associates, but that is a risk I am willing to take,” he said.

Sylva has been under EFCC investigation since 2025 over allegations linked to the dishonest conversion of $14,859,257. The former governor has also been named among suspects in an alleged failed coup attempt against President Bola Tinubu.

The EFCC had declared Sylva wanted in connection with the alleged fraud and urged him to report to the commission for questioning.