Sylva, Timi fight dirty over Bayelsa guber

Former deputy national publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has called on the National Assembly, Nigeria Police and Department of State Services (DSS), among others, to investigate former minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, over alleged certificate forgery and identity theft.

Sylva, who is a former governor of Bayelsa State, recently emerged APC gubernatorial candidate in Bayelsa State.

Frank made the requests in a petition addressed through his solicitors to the Senate president, speaker, House of Representatives, inspector general of police and the director general of DSS on the matter.

In the petition, dated March 31, 2023, and signed by the Principal Partner of Graylaw Practice LP, Edward Omaga, Frank urged the National Assembly to summon Sylva and officials from his alma maters in Nigeria and Switzerland to explain the inconsistencies in the identity of the politician.

According to the petitioner, Sylva’s primary school certificate carried his name as Anagha Timipere as evident in documents the former minister filed before a court in the United States as part of an ongoing defamation suit brought by his lawyers.

He said Anagha Timipere was different from Marlin Anagha Timipre, which is the name on Sylva’s WAEC certificate.

He claimed that the former petroleum minister had also obtained his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Port-Harcourt, with the certificate bearing Anagha Timipre Marlin.

He insisted his clearly contradicted Sylva’s 2011 doctoral degree certificate in International Relations from Ubis University, Switzerland, with the name Chief Timipre Sylva.

He further claimed that Sylva neither participated in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme nor did he obtain an exemption certificate as required by law.

However, Sylva dismissed the claims, noting that in the past few months, there have been series of attacks and campaigns of calumny against him in the media, falsely accusing him of all sorts of misdemeanour, including falsification of certificate and defamation.

Horatius Egua, senior adviser, Media and Communications to Sylva, said: “Since emerging as the APC gubernatorial candidate for Bayelsa State, a certain Timi Frank, a political prostitute and jobber has been busy making unsubstantiated allegation against Chief Timipre Sylva, doing the bidding of his pay master.

“Through his attention seeking and imbecilic allegations, he has thrown overboard decency and resorted to gutter tactics in confusing the ordinary person on the street.”