Petroleum Minister Allegedly Blackmailed ‘Local Content Board’ Boss To Release $20million to Fund Bayelsa Re-Run Elections.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva is blackmailing the Executive Secretary Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote into releasing $20 million to help the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) fund the upcoming Bayelsa West and Central senatorial re-run elections.

Part of the money, if released, is to fund the legal battle by a former boss of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Duoye Diri, as well as his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo.

After a chain of losses in several courts, Alaibe, who lost the PDP governorship primary election to Senator Diri, is praying the Supreme Court to declare him winner of the exercise and consequently declare him governor.

Should Wabote fail to make the money available in a week’s time, the Minister reportedly threatened, he would advise President Muhammadu Buhari against renewing his tenure as Executive Secretary.

Pointblanknews.com checks revealed that Sylva and Alaibe met last week in Lagos to tie up the loose ends in their alliance. The former NDDC boss, who few months before the Bayelsa governorship election, ditched APC for PDP, reportedly assured Sylva that should the federal government support him in ousting Governor Diri at the Supreme Court, he would on becoming governor, return to APC.

President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Wabote NCDMB boss on September 29, 2016. By the NCDMB Act, his four-year tenure would end on September 29, 2020. Several political interest groups in the Niger Delta have begun lobbying to replace him.

Few weeks ago, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) issued a statement urging Sylva to advice President Buhari not to renew Wabote’s tenure.

“Specifically, MEND notes with regret the outgoing Executive Secretary’s penchant for dabbling into politics and thereby undermining critical stakeholders of the Niger Delta region in the exercise of his duties”, the statement read in part, accusing Wabote of undermining former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Pointblanknews.com gathered that the MEND statement was orchestrated by Minister Sylva to put him under intense political pressure.

Sources close to the board, however, hinted that Wabote, a former Executive Director with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), “is not comfortable with awarding fictitious contracts for the sake of raising $20 million for any elections.”

Banking on his unblemished career in SPDC, Wabote has reportedly called Sylva’s bluff, saying he would rather he didn’t return as ES than steal government money in the name of pleasing a self-styled political godfather. Interestingly, Sylva and Wabote are cousins.

A close friend of Wabote told Pointblanknews.com how they were still mindful of how Sylva used President Buhari’s name to blackmail disgraced former Acting Managing Director of NDDC, Prof. Nelson Brambaifa into releasing $10 million to purportedly support APC in the last governorship election in Bayelsa State.

“We aren’t talking about the millions of dollars Sylva got from IOCs in the name of supporting the President’s party, APC. If you recall, after the Supreme Court sacked David Lyon of APC, Sylva personally apologized to President Buhari.

“The apology was for the millions of dollars he collected from government agencies and IOCs, using presidential backing. Sadly, Sylva didn’t spend a fraction of the money. He converted most of the money to personal use. This is one source of disharmony between him and David Lyon,” offered the source.

He continued, “Following the current Senate probe of the NDDC interim committee over a missing N40 billion, and the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammad Buhari, Sylva feels it is better to transfer the pressure to raise funds from the embattled NDDC leadership to NCDMB Executive Secretary.

Said a Petroleum Ministry official, “HMSFPR (Sylva) sees the upcoming senatorial re-run elections as a do-or-die affair. Whatever you’re discussing with him these days that doesn’t have any bearing on the upcoming re-run election, forget it. Oga sees the election as his final opportunity to redeem his badly battered political image.

“Aside mobilizing huge resources to stop former Governor Seriake Dickson, whom he believes will be on the ballot, Oga is mobilizing military and security personnel far outnumbering those who killed and maimed innocent persons he felt stood in the way of David Lyon’s victory in the last election,” he offered, adding, “I doubt if they’ve learned the true lesson that only God gives power?”

The official continued, “With the kind of pressure being mounted on Wabote, I won’t be surprised if he buckles.

It is therefore imperative for the National Assembly to mandate the committees on local content and relevant security agencies to set their eagle eyes on the impending movement of funds in the following days from NCDMB so we don’t end up with a similar ‘had we known’ case we now have at the NDDC.

“It is on record that several emergency contracts awarded to Sylva and his companies in the build-up to the Bayelsa governorship elections, including shoreline protection contracts in his Brass LGA, are yet to be executed. Interestingly, they have been fully paid for. This is one of the several obnoxious ways APC has been sponsoring elections in the oil-rich Niger Delta states”, he declared.