Twenty (20) Reasons Why Timipre Sylva Cannot Be Governor Of Bayelsa State

1. Timpre Sylva set up the Due Process Bureau to deceive Bayelsans and did not allow due process to be followed in the award of contracts. More than 80% of these contracts were awarded to his fronts: The Moment Newspaper; Lantana Nigeria Ltd, Marlin Maritime, Seven Waves, etc.

2. In May 2007, when Timipre Sylva assumed office as Governor he made false asset declaration and did not include some of the property he acquired when he was Personal Assistant to Dr. Edmund Daukoru. This offence amounts to telling lies under oath.

3. While in Office, Timipre Sylva incorporated a Company called MARLIN MARITIME LIMITED. Marlin Maritime bought a Company for Eight Hundred Million N800 Million and the money was sourced from FINBANK Plc. Through Dr. Opuala Charles who was his finance Commissioner for Finance in the State. MARLIN MARITIME LIMITED deals with dredgers, tugboats, fishing trawlers and other sea-going vessels. All these were financed with monies accruing to Bayelsa State and that was why development lagged.

4. Timipre Sylva could not defray the debt owed to FinBank. Consequently, in December, 2010, the Bank took a court order and sealed off the premises of Marlin Maritime Marlin Maritime and FinBank had to reschedule the loan through a former Finance Commissioner and they used another Company owned by Timipre. Marlin Maritime Limited has its headquarters near Aberdeen Port Scotland in the United Kingdom and its Port Harcourt office is in D/Line Port Harcourt.

5. Timipre Sylva defrauded Bayelsa State to the tune of N6.9 billion in his first six months in office and in less than one year he defrauded the State to the tune of N90 million a month and this continued for 36 months.

6. The Bayelsa State House of Assembly was not sufficiently consulted before the Sylva administration went ahead to procure some dead weight loans from financial institutions: N6 billion from Bank PHB; N60 billion from Oceanic Bank PLC and N4billion from Equatorial Trust Bank. These loans were procured without due process.

7. Timipre Sylva took a bond of Fifty Billion (N50 Billion) which according to him was tied to project but none of the projects was executed. Timipre Sylva converted the money for his personal used after bribing the Bayelsa State House of Assembly.

8. While in office, Timipre Sylva was running a bunkering business in Abuloma. The key players in the bunkering business were Mr. Timipre Sylva, Mr. Gbenga – who was the General Manager of Marlin Maritime and Ms. Okoroafor who serves as Secretary to the Company and one Ahmed who secured the Sylva's Jetty at Abuloma-Port Harcourt.

9. Timipre Sylva established Bayelsa Plastic Industry and registered it in the name of an Akwa Ibom man Bassey Effiong. Most people thought the Company was owned by Bayelsa State but when Governor Seriake Dickson wanted to revamp the Company, he was faced with a court case. The case lingered until the Bayelsa State Government won in court. As we speak most of the machines were overhauled to keep the company working again and create job opportunities for youths,

10. Mr. Timipre Sylva used part of his loots from Marline Maritime Limited to award a Contract to NO.1 Property to build Sixty-one (61) duplexes in a choice area in Abuja. The same Company was used to build another Sixteen (16) duplexes in Abuja all totaling 77 duplexes. The wife of the owner of NO 1 Property is one of the best friends of Mrs. Alayingi (UDUAK) Sylva. The manager of the entire process of building the duplexes is one Mr. Iyke – a former Laundry man at Beverly Hills Hotel, GRA Port Harcourt.

11. Timipre Sylva siphoned money through the office of the Chief of Staff. On a monthly basis, the sum of N1.8 billion was allocated to Government House. Worried by this trend, The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (centre LSD) with support of Pact Nigeria from 5th -6th September, 2011 at Niger Delta Wetlands Centre, organized a budget awareness workshop in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Analysis of the Bayelsa State budget shows that government house and Governor's office received more money than five Ministries namely Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, women affairs and social development, Environment and Water resources put together from 2008-2010. By the same token, the study coordinated by Dr. Otive Ogbuzor showed that the only sectors that maintained a steady increase in terms of the percentage share of the budget allocation over the years (2007-2011) was the state House of Assembly, Government house, and Governor's office and health

sectors. The report concluded that Timipre was siphoning public money and none of the activists bothered to go to court. Only the Niger Delta Integrity Group with Idumange John as Deputy President wrote three petitions and raised alarm on how Bayelsa money was being eaten up by locusts.

12. Timipre Sylva fraudulent diverted the excess crude oil money that was collected This amounted to the sum of N27 billion naira excess crude of April 2008 to the May 2008. The money was diverted for the re-run gubernatorial election and bribing the members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly with 2.6 billion naira to secure a post-procurement approval for the bank loans.

13. Mr. Timipre Sylva also fraudulently diverted transfer of 40 million dollars to a docile account of the Bayelsa State Oil- Company with the intention of transferring the funds into private accounts. This deal was facilitated by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Bayelsa State House of Assembly.

14. Most of the illegal accounts used for the transaction from October 2009 and February 2010 by Timipre Sylva include an account operated by one Habibu Sani Maigidia, a Bureau De Change Operator with Account No. 221433478108, in Fin Bank Plc, which sum represented the proceeds of an illegal act with the aim of concealing the nature of the proceeds of the said illegal act. Another Bank Account with a proxy one Enson Benmer Limited with Account No. 6152030001946, in First Bank Plc, and another account owned by one John Daukoru with Account No. 04800250000418, in United Bank of Africa Plc. The Finance Commissioner Mr. Charles Opuala tidied up all these financial transactions.

15. Timipre Sylva beat his wife almost on a weekly basis and that was done after he might have taken hard drugs. The Bayelsa Chapter of FIDA was too afraid to take up the matter. He beat his wife in the presence of University girl’s right in Government House.

16. Instead of using the State’s money to execute project, Timipre Sylva himself confessed that he spent N8.6 billion on militants in Government House, Yenagoa. He did all these when the Amnesty Programme was running and the ex-generals were receiving monies on a monthly basis. Timipre Sylva’s hope was that the militants will bring him back to power. He was wrong.

17. Timipre Sylva and most government functionaries at that time openly sponsored cultism and the cult groups engaged in gangland ward and rendered the State insure; gund were illegally procured for them; killings were done in broad day light and the security agents were helpless. As many as 166 cult groups were documented. So Timipre Sylva, the Chief Security Officer became a killer.

18. The most buffeting were the extra-judicial killings which took place under the watch of Mr. Timipre Sylva. There was gross misuse of the security outfit nicknamed Operation Famou-Tangbe OFT. Not only was OFT used as an instrument of political repression and intimidation; it was used as a killer machine like the Gestapo under the Third Reich. OFT also played the role of debt collector, arbiter in matrimonial issues, land disputes and other civil and domestic issues that have no bearing on security. Officially, it is estimated that the sum of N150 Million was spent monthly to maintain the outfit, the fact that OFT never took directives from the Police Command show that its operations are sinister and illegal. The Plant Manager at Gilly-Helena Hotel Late Mr. Karina Frank-Oputu - was beaten to death by OFT operatives, Freddie Philip Ockiya, 22 was arrested and shot by the same OFT and another ThankGod Michael, 26, was abbreviated by OFT operatives. All

these murders occurred in September, 2011. The international Community, especially the Amnesty International was at the point of blacklisting Nigeria before the disbandment of the outfit. These extra-judicial killings and the allegations of government sponsorship of cult-wars put a dent on Sylva's democratic credentials. It is the bloodiest regime of terror Bayelsans have ever seen. BAYELSANS DO NOT NEED A KILLER AS GOVERNOR

19. There are allegations that Timipre Sylva takes so much of hard drugs. Timipre Sylva has not refuted it. In law silence means consent. HOW CAN A DRUG ADDICT ADMINISTER A SENSITIVE STATE LIKE BAYELSA STATE? We are beginning from the ludicrous to the absurd.

20. Finally, Timipre Sylva is a cultist. In his days in the University of Port Harcourt, he was the Guvnor of the Viking Confraternity. Viking is not a Social club but a secret society. Little wonder that druing his five years rule of Bayelsa State, there was so much bloodshed in Bayelsa State, coupled with the spread of drug addiction in the State. SHOULD WE ALLOW A CULTIST TO BECOME OUR GOVERNOR? BAYELSANS SAY AN EMPHATIC NO!

The Niger Delta Integrity Group has beamed a searchlight on all contestants and we have vowed not to allow, thieves, fraudsters, cultists and juju men to be Governors. Bayelsa State has been dedicated to God and the State is the glory of all lands and the Jerusalem of Ijaw people. BAYELSANS DO NOT WANT A DRUG ADDICT TO GOVERN THEM AGAIN.

Barr. Osagie Osaghae
For and on behalf of Niger Delta Integrity Group