Someone in Maitama said the house went quiet first, then bright red letters appeared on the walls. It was the sort of sight people pretend not to notice while slowing their cars to take it in.
The residence belongs to Timipre Sylva, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and ex-governor of Bayelsa. It now sits under the grip of an EFCC order linked to an alleged scheme involving $14.8 million. A Federal High Court issued an arrest warrant in early November, followed days later by the agency declaring him wanted.
The operation did not stop with the paint. Soldiers had raided the house weeks earlier over rumours of a plot against the Tinubu administration. The details of that episode remain hazy, but the arrests of aides, a brother, and domestic staff gave it a harder edge. The home has since remained sealed.
Sylva was reportedly away during both raids. His lawyers told investigators he is battling a severe medical condition and cannot appear in person for now. His media aide, Julius Bokoru, has supplied the counter-narrative: a view that the process is irregular and the intention political.
Bokoru’s criticism is sharp. He describes a procedure carried out without a warrant or warning. He speaks of children and relatives confined inside the compound for weeks. His language turns a legal dispute into a portrait of people trapped in a climate of fear.
The political reading flows easily. Bokoru insists the President has no hand in the matter. In his view, it is the pressure as a local rivalry dressed in the uniform of federal authority. And because in Nigeria, institutions carry the burden of suspicion, the suggestion is gaining traction.
The case itself is tangled: a refinery investment, disputed transactions, and competing explanations. The arrests around the raid deepen the confusion. Yet the public faces a simpler reality. A house in Abuja stands shut, and the silence around it grows thicker by the day.
If the truth eventually surfaces, it may arrive long after those painted letters fade from the walls.
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