The security operatives have reportedly laid siege on the family members of the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, at their Maitama residence in Abuja.
Sunday Telegraph reports that Sylva, a former Governor of Benue State and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was accused of financing a coup plot against President Bola Tinubu’s government.
Days after the news made its round, the former Minister was declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for alleged diversion of money meant for Brass Petrochemical, allegations that he has denied.
In a statement titled, “Detention of Sylva’s aides: a call for reason, humanity and due process”, Chief Julius Bokoru, Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs to Sylva, lamented that the four aides and domestic workers to the former governor who were arrested in October when the security operatives ransacked the house, were still languishing in detention.
He identified them as Mr Paganengigha Anagha, Musa Mohammed, Sylva’s driver, Police Officer Ayuba Reuben and Friday Lusa Paul, an escort driver.
He said: “Yet the most distressing element of this saga is not the swirl of speculation, but the quiet suffering of innocent men caught in the crossfire. These individuals, fathers, husbands, ordinary Nigerians, have been held on grounds that appear unclear at best, and entirely vague to their traumatised families”.
Bokoru wondered why despite clear and formal communication between Sylva and the EFCC, his aides had continued to be held behind bars.
He said: “This persists even after Chief Sylva wrote to the EFCC, reaffirming his readiness to appear before the Commission on a mutually convenient date, subject only to his ongoing treatment for a life-threatening medical condition.
“Before these developments, the public was unsettled by unfounded attempts to link him to a purported coup plot, allegations the Federal Government and the military have since dismissed in absolute terms.
“One would have expected that such clarity would steady the national conversation. Instead, events escalated further, culminating in public statements from the EFCC that appeared inconsistent with earlier engagements”.
He said there was widespread belief that Tinubu was not behind the travails of Sylva, but some selfish individuals.
He said Sylva, with his legacy in the petroleum sector and his contributions to the Amnesty Programme that restored permanent peace in the Niger Delta, deserves respect, not humiliation.
He said: “These events carry a heavy toll on individuals, on families, and on the democratic values that demand fairness, transparency and proportionality.
“They also risk overshadowing the legacy of a patriot who, against daunting odds, championed the Petroleum Industry Bill until it became the Petroleum Industry Act we rely upon today.
“As Governor, he ventured into the creeks to midwife the Presidential Amnesty Programme, a decisive intervention that restored peace and secured vital national revenues.
“Such a figure cannot be reduced to a pawn in local political rivalries, nor targeted by those who see the coming electoral season as an opportunity to diminish him.
“Across the political spectrum, there remains a genuine and widespread belief that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a leader long regarded for his reformist courage, is not the architect of this prolonged ordeal.
“Only weeks ago, at the APC enlarged stakeholders’ meeting in Bayelsa, Chief Sylva expressed unambiguous support for the President’s second-term ambition, praising his transformational efforts across governance, healthcare, education and economic recovery.
“It is therefore imperative that state actors or parastatal operatives do not mistake personal or local disputes for federal directives. What began as a local political disagreement must not be allowed to mutate into a national crisis”.
Bokoru appealed to security agencies to release the detained aides to enable them to rejoin their anxious families, appealing to them to lift the 24-hour siege around Sylva’s children and resort to due process, which he described as the foundation of any civilised society.
