EFCC drags Sylva to court over N6.4 bn

The EFCC on Friday dragged former Bayelsa governor, Mr Timipre Sylva to a Federal High Court in Abuja for alleged misappropriation of N6.46 billion public funds. The anti-graft agency in suit number FHC/ABJ/CR/23/2012 claimed that Sylva and others now at large, committed the offence between October 2009 and February 2010. The case is yet to be assigned. The former governor and others now at large were accused of fraudulently obtaining a loan facility of N4 billion from the Union Bank. The loans were allegedly obtained under the guise of using it to augment workers’ salaries. The EFCC also alleged that Sylva with others now at large, had between October 2009 and February 2010 converted properties and resources of the Bayelsa government amounting to N2 billion. They were also alleged to on Jan. 22, 2010, converted N380 million worth of government property through a Fin Bank account No. 221433478108 belonging to one Habibu Sani Maigida, a Bureau De Change Operator. It further said that Sylva and his accomplices, had on Feb. 5, 2010 converted N50 million of the state’s funds through a First Bank Account No. 6152030001946 of Enson Benmer Limited.