The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has placed a former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, on its watch list over an alleged case of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of funds to the tune of $14.8 million, Daily Trust learned last night.

It was also gathered that the anti-graft agency, shortly after declaring the former governor wanted yesterday, put all international law enforcement agencies on red alert to help it arrest the Bayelsa-born politician.

Multiple credible sources within the EFCC, who confided in our correspondent last night, listed the National Crime Agency (NCA), a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom, as one of the agencies put on alert. Daily Trust reports that the NCA is the UK’s lead agency against organised crime.

Other law enforcement agencies put on alert include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the primary federal law enforcement agency in the United States; International Police (INTERPOL); and the Metropolitan Police, among others.

Speaking to Daily Trust anonymously, a detective within the commission expressed confidence that Sylva would be arrested soon and brought back to Nigeria to face the law.

The source explained that there is no hiding place for Sylva, also a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources under the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari.

“You know when we declare someone wanted like that, all the law enforcement agencies across the world are placed on notice – FBI, NCA, Metropolitan Police. We’ve placed him on a watch list. So, there is no hiding place for him. We have our development partners. It is a matter of time when he will be brought back to Nigeria. They will arrest him,” one of the sources revealed in discussing the development.

‘Sylva wanted’

Earlier on Monday, the EFCC declared the former minister wanted in connection with the case that relates to funds reportedly injected by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) into Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for the construction of a refinery.

In a public notice issued and signed by the EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, Sylva was declared wanted following a warrant of arrest issued by the Lagos State High Court on November 6, 2025.

Providing more updates via a statement after the public notice, Oyewale said the order was granted by Justice D.I. Dipeolu.

“The commission, on November 6, 2025, secured a warrant for the arrest of the former Minister at a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

“The order, granted by Justice D.I. Dipeolu, stated: ‘An order is made issuing a warrant to the applicant or any officer of the commission, police, or any law enforcement officer for the arrest of the respondent for the purpose of bringing him before the commission to answer to the criminal offence he is alleged to have committed,’” Oyewale said in a statement supporting the notice.

The notice he issued earlier read, “The public is hereby notified that Timipre Sylva, a former Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, and former Governor of Bayelsa State, whose photograph appears above is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in an alleged case of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of $14,859,257—part of funds injected by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) into Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited for the construction of a refinery.

“Sylva, 61, is from Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. This notice is pursuant to a November 6, 2025, warrant of the Federal High Court, Lagos.”

The commission urged anyone with useful information about Sylva’s whereabouts to contact any of its offices nationwide or report to the nearest police station or security agency.

Specifically, it listed the agency’s offices in several cities, including Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna, as contact points. It also provided a hotline and email address for information sharing.

“Anybody with useful information as to his whereabouts should please contact the Commission in its Ibadan, Uyo, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Benin, Makurdi, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Gombe, Port Harcourt or Abuja offices or through 08093322644; its e-mail address: info@efcc.gov.ng or the nearest Police Station and other security agencies.”

How ex-Bayelsa gov’s fresh travails began

Checks showed that Sylva’s wanted declaration came 27 days after the House of Representatives resolved to probe the alleged mismanagement of a $35 million investment by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in a modular refinery project that never materialised in the Niger-Delta.

The motion was moved by a House of Representatives member, Billy Osawaru, who raised concerns over the non-completion of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, despite a significant federal investment made five years ago.

Osawaru, while making his submission during the plenary, had noted that stakeholders had petitioned the EFCC in May 2024 to investigate NCDMB’s multi-million-dollar investments, including the Atlantic Refinery project, but said the anti-graft agency had remained silent nearly a year later.

Following this, the House mandated its Committees on Midstream, Downstream, and Legislative Compliance to investigate the $35 million investment in Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited and report their findings within four weeks.

Stakeholders in the security sector, who spoke to Daily Trust, said the accusation of silence over the petition against Sylva could have triggered his wanted declaration.

A security analyst, Abdullahi Garba, explained that in line with the operation of the EFCC, the commission cannot act on its own volition without being prompted by a petition.

“With the way the EFCC is structured, there must be a petition or an intelligence the EFCC must act upon before it acts. The House of Representatives did well by bringing to the notice of everybody what would have been swept under the carpet,” Garba said.

Sylva reacts

Meanwhile, Sylva has described his wanted declaration as the target of a coordinated and calculated political onslaught.

In a statement issued last night by his media aide, Julius Bokoru, the former minister said as somebody who has respect for lawful institutions and due process, he will honour the invitation of the EFCC once he concludes his ongoing medical check-up in the United Kingdom.

He said the recent travails by the former Bayelsa governor brought to the fore a political undertone by those who are being intimidated by his political relevance.

“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday took to social media to announce, quite unceremoniously, that it had declared Chief Timipre Sylva wanted.

“No formal communication was extended to him, no established protocol observed, only a sudden digital proclamation designed, it would seem, to inflame public sentiment and manufacture yet another episode of orchestrated hostility.

“It is, to say the least, curious that what was once whispered in corridors as a ‘coup matter’ has now quietly metamorphosed into a financial allegation. The same shadowy forces that once sought to criminalise Sylva politically now appear to have reinvented themselves as fiscal crusaders. There must, undoubtedly, be an explanation for this cinematic transition from rumour to reinvention, from one carefully scripted accusation to another.

“Chief Timipre Sylva remains, without equivocation, the target of a coordinated and calculated political onslaught. His recent travails bear an uncanny resemblance to the trials of Job in Holy Scripture, each ordeal arriving with near-mathematical precision, each accusation discredited only for another to appear.

“These are no coincidences; they are the deliberate machinations of those who dread Sylva’s enduring political relevance and moral resolve.

“For clarity, I have not been in direct communication with Chief Sylva. However, from available information and from prior official briefings, it is important to restate that Chief Sylva will, in line with his respect for lawful institutions and due process, honour the invitation of the EFCC once he concludes his ongoing medical check-up in the United Kingdom.

“At this stage, one might jest that only the Boys’ Brigade of Nigeria and the Man’O’War remain uninvited to this theatre of persecution.

“The desperation to sully Sylva’s name knows no restraint—its sponsors are zealous, its intentions transparent, and its malice unmistakable. Yet, let it be categorically stated: 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. The refinery project in question is a legitimate, transparent, and verifiable undertaking—subject to due process and traceable documentation.

“To our friends, allies, and well-wishers: this, too, shall pass. Truth, though often delayed, remains immutable. It neither bows to propaganda nor perishes in the tumult of falsehood. Those engineering this relentless campaign of defamation will not prevail for light, by its very nature, must always outshine darkness,” Bokoru stated.

Alleged coup link

Recently, Sylva made headlines after his Abuja residence was raided by the military on October 25 over alleged involvement in an attempted coup. His younger brother, Paga, who serves as his Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, along with his driver, was arrested.

The former governor, while confirming military presence at his Abuja residence, denied involvement in any attempt to topple President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.

Sylva, in a statement by his media aide, Julius Bokoru, while responding to reports linking his principal to the rumoured coup, stated that some politicians were taking their desperation to a sickening level following his “intimidating political presence and credibility”.

He described the former governor as an unrepentant and thoroughbred democrat, who had shown unwavering support to Tinubu and his administration.

Bokoru recalled that Sylva recently mobilized the entire structures of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa to unanimously endorse President Tinubu at the APC Bayelsa Expanded Stakeholders’ Meeting.

According to him, the security operatives that raided Sylva’s house did not provide any reason for their action. He confirmed that Sylva and his wife were already out of the country at the time of the raid.

Explaining their absence, Bokoru said Sylva was in the United Kingdom for routine medical checks and would soon be on his way to Malaysia to attend a professional conference.

Ex-minister’s previous issues with EFCC

In 2016, Sylva, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who contested the 2015 governorship election on the party’s platform in Bayelsa State, retrieved 48 of his properties which the EFCC seized during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

Some of the properties were located in Wuse II, Maitama and other high-brow areas of Abuja.

Back then, the commission had slammed 50 charges against the ex-governor and arraigned him before three federal high courts in Abuja.

The politician from the oil-rich state had accused the anti-graft agency of a witch-hunt and political persecution, and subsequently, the case was struck out.

A visit to some of the houses in the past showed that the inscription “EFCC, Keep Off” on the gates and fences of the property, was immediately wiped off the buildings while some had been rented out.

Further checks revealed then that sixteen units of service apartments at Plot 1181 Thaba Tseka Crescent, off IBB Way in the Wuse II area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were rented out at N6m per annum including a N1.5m service charge.

“When the EFCC sealed off this property, it was rotting away. However, it was re-opened a few months after, so we refurbished the property. We have repainted the property and we have started renting the apartments out,” a guard at the property revealed then.

There was also a block of flats, which comprises nine units (six one-bedroom and three two-bedroom flats) located at 8, Sefadu Street, Wuse, Zone 2.

Similarly, the former governor was also reported to own a property located at 8 Mistrata Street, Wuse II, Abuja. The property has reportedly been converted to a hotel. (Daily Trust)