Bayelsa gov’ship: Sylva, APC ex-spokesman clash over certificate ‘forgery’

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Bayelsa State governorship election, Timipre Sylva, and the party’s former deputy national publicity secretary, Timi Frank, on Wednesday, clashed over alleged certificate forgery.

Sylva who is a former governor of Bayelsa State recently resigned as Minister of State for Petroleum and emerged as the candidate of the APC for the state election slated for November. 

But in a petition signed by his lawyers, the Principal Partner of Graylaw Practice LP, Edward Omaga Esq, Frank accused Sylva of forging some of his certificates and asked the National Assembly and security agencies to probe him. 

“Obviously, it is confusing as to who Chief Timipre Sylva is; who Anagha Timipre Marlin is; who Marlin Anagha Timipre is; and who Anagha Timipre is. There is no evidence anywhere showing that Chief Timipre Sylva ever changed his name from Anagha Timipre Marlin to Timipre Sylva in 1986 after he purportedly graduated from the University of Port Harcourt,” he said.

But reacting in a statement, Horatius Egua, the Senior Adviser on Media and Communications to Sylva, said a federal high court in Abuja, in 2022 dismissed the alleged certificate forgery case filed by the Transparency Advocacy for Development Initiative (TADI) against Chief Timipre Sylva.

“So for anyone to impute that Chief Sylva did not go to school or falsified his certificate is a clear demonstration of a man who suffers from memory loss. It’s only an imbecile that can concoct such mischievous and misleading information to sell to the public,” he said.