12 July 2012
PRESS STATEMENT
SYLVA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH
2010 INDEPENDENCE DAY BOMBING
We have read in utter shock reports about a statement in court by a state witness in the October 1, 2010 Independence Day bombing in Abuja, claiming that Chief Timipre Sylva had foreknowledge of the blast.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that the so-called testimony is completely false, mischievous, and misleading. Sylva knows nothing about the independence-day bombing. He has nothing to do with it.
It is public knowledge that the alleged mastermind of the October 1, 2010 Abuja bombing, Mr. Henry Okah, who is currently standing trial in a South African court, has deposed to an affidavit in which he did not mention Sylva as having any links to the blast.
Sylva, therefore, wonders what the State Security Services (SSS) wants to achieve with the falsehood by the so-called independent witness.
Besides, the testimony by the unnamed witness smells of obvious desperation to drag Sylva into what he knows nothing about, perhaps, in continuation of the deliberate political victimisation that has been meted out to him in recent times. It is sad that after all they have done against Sylva, the forces of reaction appear not yet satisfied. Now, they want to rope him into a treasonable offence he did not commit. That way, it would be easy to silence him forever since under our laws the punishment for treason is death.
Nigerians have in recent history been witnesses to the fates of innocent citizens who were sent to their early graves or incarcerated unjustly on phantom charges of concealment. Having emerged from that ugly past, the security agencies and the political class must be careful to avoid things that may re-enact the bad political times.
Sylva dissociates himself completely from the Independence Day bombing issue and advises the security agencies to strive to do their job professionally and not taint it with politics.
DOIFIE OLA
Media Adviser to Chief Timipre Sylva
