Tapre Timine
The All Progressives Congress Governorship Candidate in Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva has been accused of documents forgery and theft.
Timi Frank, a Former Publicity secretary of the ruling party, levelled the allegations bordering falsified credentials and stolen identities against the former Minister of State for Petroleum.
According to the petition by Frank dated March 31, 2023, and sent to the Senate, Sylva filed processes to change his name to Timipre Sylva in an official Nigerian government gazette of May 12, 2022.
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The above was after he served as Bayelsa governor between 2007 and 2012 and also minister of state for petroleum resources, among other top-level state and federal positions.
Frank, in the petition sent to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, demands that Sylva and officials from his alma maters in Nigeria and Switzerland be summoned to explain the inconsistencies in the identity of the politician.
Sylva’s primary school certificate according to the petition bore his name as Anagha Timipere which was filed before a court in the United States as part of an ongoing defamation suit brought by his lawyers.
This contradicted Marlin Anagha Timipre- the name he has on his WAEC certificate.
Also, the ex-petroleum minister’s certificate from the University of Port-Harcourt, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in English has Anagha Timipre Marlin.
This was also different from Sylva’s 2011 doctoral degree in International Relations at Ubis University, Switzerland bearing Chief Timipre Sylva.
The petition also highlighted that Sylva neither participated in the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps nor was given an exemption certificate using any of the forenamed names.
The petition read:
“Obviously, the certificates mentioned above have visible anomalies and do not depict the true identity of CHIEF TIMPRE SYLVA. It is confusing as to who CHIEF TIMIPRE SYLVA is; who ANAGHA TIMIPRE MARLIN is; who MARLIN ANAGHA TIMIPRE is and who ANAGHA TIMIPERE is.
“There is no evidence anywhere showing that CHIEF TIMPRE SYLVA ever changed his name from ANAGHA TIMIPRE MARLIN to TIMIPRE SYLVA in 1986 after he purportedly graduated from University of Port Harcourt.
“Investigation by our client reveals that there is also no record that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Discharge or Exemption Certificate, as the case may be, either in the name of ANAGHA TIMIPRE MARLIN or TIMIPRE SYLVA.”
In all these, the Former Governor of Bayelsa State did not have a supporting document to show he ever changed any of the aforementioned names to his present name.
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Frank hence prayed the Senate to summon INEC, CCB, and SSS officials for their roles in screening and approving Sylva’s ministerial appointment as well as his successful governorship bid in 2007.
The petitioner further the Senate to summon Sylva and officials from all the learning institutions that issued him a certificate(s) to confirm the actual identity of who they awarded the academic certificate.
The institutions mentioned in the petition were Ajeromi Central School in Apapa, Lagos, WAEC office, University of Port-Harcourt, and Ubis University, Switzerland.
Due to the discrepancies in the document, the petitioner supposed that Sylva forged his academic certificates or had them stolen from a third party— an offence that violated Section 438 of the Criminal Code Act and carries a 14-year prison sentence.
