The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared Timipre Sylva, a former Governor of Bayelsa State and ex-Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, wanted over an alleged case of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of funds amounting to $14.8 million.
The anti-graft agency secured a warrant for his arrest from a Lagos State High Court on November 6, issue by Justice D.I. Dipeolu, and has subsequently placed him on watch lists of international law enforcement bodies, including the FBI, Interpol, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), and the Metropolitan Police.
The funds in question are investment made by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) into the Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for a non-materialized refinery project.
The case recently gained public attention after the House of Representatives resolved to probe the alleged mismanagement of a $35 million investment in the same modular refinery project, which remains incomplete five years after the investment was made. This parliamentary motion, raised 27 days prior, followed a petition that the EFCC had reportedly been silent on for nearly a year.
Sylva’s Abuja residence was raided by the military in October 2025 over alleged links to an attempted coup, an allegation his media aide vehemently denied. Sylva’s media aide described the declaration as a coordinated and calculated political onslaught, quietly metamorphosed into a financial allegation from an earlier coup matter, denying the allegations and stating the former minister would honour the invitation upon concluding his medical check-up in the UK.
Chief Timipre Sylva has clean hands. He has not diverted a single dollar, nor has he betrayed the trust reposed in him by the Nigerian people
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