Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, has described the recent allegation of forgery and identity theft levelled against him by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Pary (PDP) as a mere attempt to “dampen” his political pursuits.
Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, and now a PDP chieftain, Timi Frank had in a petition to the Police and Department of State Security, called for the security agencies o investigate Sylva’s alleged identity therft and certificate forgery, ahead of the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa state
Responding to the allegations, Sylva, in a statement issued Wednesday by his media aide, Horatius Egua said, “In the past few months, there have been a series of attacks and campaigns of calumny against Chief Timipre Sylva in the media, falsely accusing him of all sorts of misdemeanour, including falsification of certificate and defamation.
“A careful analysis of all the publications reveals an orchestrated attempt by some disgruntled elements and known blackmailers to dampen the political enthusiasm and commitment of Chief Timipre Sylva to the call to continue his service to the nation and Bayelsa State in particular.
“Ordinarily, Chief Sylva would not want to dignify the character behind these defamatory publications with any response but for the purpose of letting the general public, especially the good people of Bayelsa know the reasons for these barrage of attacks, we have decided to address a few issues raised in the publication.”
On the alleged use of multiple names by Sylva, Sylva recalled that a Federal High Court, in Abuja, in 2023 had dismissed the alleged certificate forgery case filed by the Transparency Advocacy for Development Initiative against him
“The court in a copy of its ruling dated March 8th dismissed the matter following an application by the lawyer to the plaintiff, Edward Onaga, seeking the withdrawal of the case.”
