Nembe People Are Still Weeping Because Of Sylva’s Mismanagement Of Public Funds

The N709 BILLION FAAC MONEY WITH NOTHING TANGIBLE TO SHOW

THE N50 BILLION BOND THAT WAS LAVISHED
THE COUNTLESS BANK LOANS THAT WERE PUT IN PRIVATE POCKETS

SYLVA LEFT BEHIND A DEBT OF N332 BILLION
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. The CAC has details of the companies registered.

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. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

to be contd.