EXCLUSIVE: How former governor Sylva allegedly became coup sponsor

New revelations about how Timipre Sylva, a former governor, ex-minister and member of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), figured in the alleged plot to topple President Bola Tinubu’s administration last year have come to light, as PREMIUM TIMES digs into secret details investigators have come to know but may not share publicly.

Previous reporting and criminal charges filed in court against suspected co-conspirators identified him as a major sponsor of the failed plot.

But the circumstances of how he came in contact with the coup architects and why he allegedly bought into the highly risky, make-or-break clandestine scheme have remained unknown until now.

PREMIUM TIMES has now found revealing clues from scouring heaps of documents running into over 7,400 pages, which investigators collected for the prosecution of suspects accused of playing various roles in the failed conspiracy.

The confidential documents include the statements of several suspects, of the alleged conspirators’ secret conversations, and other exhibits assembled by investigators.

Many suspects, including serving and retired military officers as well other civilians linked to the alleged plot are facing trial at either the General Court Martial convened by the military, and the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Mr Sylva’s name features in some of the charges. But the former governor, believed to be holed up abroad, has yet to be arrested or formally charged as an individual. Meanwhile, five of his former aides and domestic workers are facing charges in Abuja for allegedly concealing information about his whereabouts.

Mr Sylva has been named to be part of the financial network that allegedly bankrolled the failed plot.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in February that the former governor of the oil-rich Bayelsa State allegedly contributed the largest share of N785 million to the coup.

Investigators said he transferred the funds through Purple Waves Limited, an Abuja-based construction company. The money then went through the account of a bureau de change operator before ending up with the intended recipients. Purple Waves Limited’s secretary, John Ebokpo, has since been interrogated by security operatives, this newspaper reported.

New discoveries by this newspaper provide missing details preceding Mr Sylva’s alleged transfers, which dramatically shaped the future of the alleged coup up till when it was busted in September last year.

The suspected coup leader, Mohammed Ma’aji, a Nigerian Army colonel, detailed in his handwritten, bare-it-all statements and interviews by interrogators, how Mr Sylva’s buy-in became a turning point in the sputtering conspiracy that was struggling to get off the ground.

The encounter

Mr Ma’aji traced his relationship with Mr Sylva to his days as a captain in the Nigerian Army.

He gave no date in his description of the early days of his encounter with Mr Sylva.

But he has since moved up three ranks since the time of their first meetings. In fact, Mr Ma’aji would have become a brigadier general in 2023, if he had not flunked the promotion examination that year. He failed the promotion examination again in 2024. He listed career stagnation as part of his motivation for the coup.

Their paths likely crossed for the first time many years ago during Mr Ma’aji’s deployment to the oil-rich Niger Delta. PREMIUM TIMES has revealed in previous reports that Mr Ma’aji built much of his operational experience in the region, which is central to his professional and political networks that he built over the years.

In 2017, he participated in Operation Crocodile Smile II, a major Nigerian Army exercise designed to address militancy, oil theft and insecurity in the Niger Delta and parts of the South-west. Military assignments like this always figures in the intersection of oil economy, politics and security, creating fora for engagements between communities, political actors and security personnel.

For Mr Sylva, who was in and out out of public offices from 1992 to 2023, running for elections and reaching the top layer of the power structure in the region by becoming an oil minister and governor in between, his social and political networks would have widened over time to include trusted security figures like Mr Ma’aji who have served in Bayelsa State or the Niger Delta.

At 28 in 1992, Mr Sylva took his first political office after winning a seat in the old Rivers State House of Assembly to represent Brass Constituency. He served as the special assistant to the minister of state for petroleum resources between 2004 and 2007. He became the governor of Bayelsa State in 2008 and was in office till 2012. Then, he took his last political office as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources during the immediate-past Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2019 up till 2023.

In these years, both Mr Sylva and Mr Ma’aji must have become part of each others’ spheres of influence.

From doubter to convert

Although Mr Ma’aji has nursed the coup ambition since at least 2023, it never featured in his conversations with Mr Sylva.

While struggling to raise funds, he said he was under pressure from those he interchangeably called “all these boys” and “members,” apparently referring to some of his key allies.

At last, the military officer said he decided “just recently” to broach the subject to Mr Sylva, a member of the ruling APC, to seek his support.

This was likely to be some weeks before Mr Sylva allegedly started releasing funds in 2025.

He sought Mr Sylva’s financial support after narrating how the group had struggled in futility to raise funds for the execution of their plan.

“In terms of logistics support, also recently after much pressure from some members, I had to approach Chief Timipire Sylva for financial support,” Mr Ma’aji wrote.

But he said Mr Sylva was dismissive of the idea when it was mooted to him.

According to him, the former governor’s response was, “Col., please I don’t want to hear about this.”

In another part of his statements, he wrote that Mr Sylva “told me that he does not want to be involved in any military issues.”

But things later changed.

Mr Ma’aji said several weeks after their initial conversation, Mr Sylva called and “asked to know more of the details and asked about the chances of success.“

He also said Mr Sylva asked “whether we have been able to get financial support and I said no at that point.”

By this time, Mr Sylva’s initial hesitation had gone away. According to Mr Ma’aji’s statement, Mr Sylva said he changed his mind after reflecting on Nigeria’s situation.

“He said he has thought deeply about our movement and the situation of the country and it is only military intervention that could save the country from the precarious situation,” the military officer said.

‘My children are abroad because of Nigeria’s conditions’

Mr Ma’aji recounted that, in Mr Sylva’s embrace of the coup plot, he admitted that politicians had failed Nigerians.

The colonel said Mr Sylva “confessed that they, the politicians, have failed and that he doubts if the present crop of politicians have patriotic zeal to fix the country.”

Mr Sylva’s alleged lack of confidence in the future of the country informed some of his family decisions. “He [Mr Sylva] said he sent all his children abroad because of the unfavourable conditions of Nigeria as a country,” the colonel stated.

Covering track

While agreeing to support the alleged plot, Mr Sylva expressed his desire to remain untraceable to it.

“During the conversations he agreed to support us with some funds but did not name any amount. He now asked how we are going to receive the money and I told him anyhow he wanted it. He then said he would not want to send money to my personal account because he doesn’t want anything traced to him,” Mr Ma’aji’s statement read.

The military officer said he subsequently suggested using a bureau de change operator to receive the funds, an arrangement he said the former governor accepted.

“That was when I told him about Alhaji Aminu, my friend who is a Bureau De Change operator and he was okay with that. That was when I went ahead to ask Alhaji Aminu of his company’s account. But he was not aware of the source and purpose of the money. I just told him I am expecting some funds.

“A few days later, Alhaji Aminu told me he has started receiving alerts and that was how I started disbursing the funds as they come for different purposes which I cannot mention now. As at the time I was arrested, Alhaji Aminu told me he has received a lot of over N400 million.”

Investigators believe that about N785 million, the largest share of the donations to the alleged coup, was allegedly traced to Mr Sylva.

More details about the funds will come in subsequent part of this reporting series on the alleged plot.

READ ALSO: EXCLUSIVE: How alleged coup leader’s hidden motivation led him into arrest trap

Denial

In his first and only reaction yet to the coup allegations in October last year, Mr Sylva denied involvement.

Speaking on his behalf in a press statement, his spokesperson, Julius Bokoru, dismissed the allegations as untrue.

However, the statement admitted that “individuals believed to be operatives of the Defence Headquarters” raided the former governor’s residence.

It described Mr Sylva as “a thoroughbred democrat, whose entire political journey has been defined by his faith in democratic processes and institutions.”

The statement which framed the coup allegation as still being a rumour at the time, affirmed Mr Sylva’s loyalty to President Tinubu.

“His unwavering support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a matter of public record. It remains fresh in memory how he mobilised the entire Bayelsa APC structure to unanimously endorse President Tinubu at the APC Bayelsa Expanded Stakeholders’ Meeting,” the statement read.

“These rumours are nothing more than the handiwork of desperate and narcissistic politicians, already consumed by ambitions for 2027, who see Sylva as their last real obstacle—a man whose political presence and credibility continue to expose their dark, self-serving ambitions.”

While Mr Sylva remains outside the country, the government has kept its eyes on him. Apart from prosecuting five associates for allegedly concealing information about his whereabouts, the government has also launched forfeiture proceedings against assets linked to him. In May, the government obtained an order of interim forfeiture against nine of such assets.

Read the teaser story for the PREMIUM TIMES series of exclusive reports on the failed coup plot here, and subsequent exposés here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.