[size=13pt]Bayelsa State governor in a N100 billion scandal [/size]

Timpriye Sylva, the Bayelsa State governor, is set for trouble with Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as the agency prepares to slam him with a multiple-count charge of money laundering and diversion of public funds to the tune of about N100billion.

Three top officials of Mr. Sylva’s cabinet were last week detained by the EFCC in relation to similar crimes, but the anti-corruption agency said that this is just a tip of the iceberg as the state governor is the ultimate purpose of the investigations.

“The whole thing is about the governor. All the other officials are just collaborators. The governor is the ultimate beneficiary of the corruption,” an EFCC official declared in an interview.

The EFCC stated that for the past one year, the agency has been carrying out investigations on the state governor, adding that the commission now has sufficient evidence with which to prosecute the governor.

Mr. Sylva’s crimes

According to the EFCC, Mr. Sylva and his collaborators, from last year, began a chain of money laundering activities, which altogether are valued at almost N100 billion.

One major transaction carried out by the governor in 2009, through his collaborators, involved a one-time transfer of 40 million US dollars.

“Sometime last year, he (Timpriye Sylva) transferred the sum of $40 million allegedly for offshore savings, using a dummy company called Bayelsa Oil Company,” the source said.

Again, Mr. Sylva is alleged to have received a N75 billion loan facility from a consortium of banks. The facility was not used for any project in the state, the EFCC said.

In the same year,

“Without budgetary allocation or approval by the state House of Assembly, he(Mr. Sylva) released N1.8billion as consultancy fee for the establishment of a micro-finance bank for the state. The micro-finance bank does not exist,” a source in the EFCC said.

The source added that there is a long list of vices attributed to Mr. Sylva and that ongoing investigations would reveal more, adding that the governor had more than a case of money laundering pending. He will also answer questions in relation to asset declaration.

“He bought shares and property in Nigeria and overseas between 2002 and 2007 while he was an aide to one of the ministers. These assets were not declared in his asset declaration form when he assumed office in 2007,” the EFCC operative said.

Collaborators in crime

Mr. Sylva could not have accomplished all these by himself, the EFCC said.

“There’s no way the governor would have done all these by himself without the help of the commissioner for finance,” the source said.

Last week, Francis Okukoro, the Accountant General of the state; Abbot Clinton, the director of treasury; and Ikobho Anthony Howells, the director of finance, were remanded in an Abuja prison. Their trial is expected to begin on April 13, 2010. A fourth party, Charles Sylva Osuala, the finance commissioner, according to the EFCC, is at large and has now been declared wanted by the commission. The trio are being held on account of money laundering and diversion of public funds to the tune of about N2.4 billion. This does not include the allegations being prepared against Mr. Sylva.

Unknown to the governor and his officials, the anti-graft agency had been monitoring their activities for well over a year.

“The investigation has been ongoing for almost a year, but we had to wait until we had enough evidence against them. We know all the details of the transactions that they’ve done. For example, we were alerted when the $40 million transfer was done. That was sometime in August, 2009,”

According to the source, Mr. Sylva and his accomplices first opened about five different bank accounts in Union Bank Plc. With these accounts, the group took overdraft facilities to the tune of about N2 billion under the guise of using it to augment salaries.

Earlier this year, on 22 January, the group allegedly moved about N350 million to a bureau-de-change in Kano.

“This is a typical case of money laundering. They first sent the money to Kano in naira, and then they changed the money to dollars and then moved it from one person to the other till the money became lost in transit.”

When contacted, the spokesman of the EFCC, Femi Babafemi, declined to speak on the matter.

“This is an ongoing investigation and I cannot comment on it,” he said.

But the case against the state governor is not one that the EFCC will pursue in a hurry. For one, he remains protected by his immunity until he leaves office in 2011. The EFCC says that they are willing to wait until then.

“We cannot prosecute him until he leaves office but we will prosecute the other people involved,” an EFCC operative said.

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