Our attention has been drawn to a strange report by an online medium that alleged that a certain Lt. Col. David Ahangba, a former special assistant to the late National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi, received N150 million on behalf of his boss from the Bayelsa State government under Chief Timipre Sylva.
The money was alleged to be an inducement to the then NSA to help the former governor’s second term ambition.
The report as it concerns Sylva is wholly untrue. Sylva did not give any money to Azazi and could not have done so for the intention suggested in the story because Azazi was not in a position to stop the organised political onslaught against the governor at the time.
The decision to exclude Sylva from the Bayelsa State governorship race was taken at highest level of government and politics in the country. And Azazi was just an errand person in the process and was never in a position to halt the well-calculated course of action.
We are concerned that even when Sylva has been unjustly prevented from re-election and made to face a series of persecution by the same elements that orchestrated the injustice, his name is still being undeservedly dragged in the mud. Sadly, this latest assault is coming when Azazi is late and unavailable to respond to the charges against him.
Sylva wishes to be left out of this alleged transaction between the former NSA and his aide, as he has nothing to do with it.
DOIFIE BUOKORIBO
Media Adviser to Chief Timipre Sylva
