I’ve only 3 houses in Abuja, not 48,” Timipre Sylva says, as he vows to sue Punchng .

The former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, has denied a report by Punchng, that he has 48 houses in Abuja. While slamming the report as “strange, speculative and malicious”, Sylva said there was no time the court confirmed the huge number of houses credited to him.

A statement released by his media aide, Doifie Buokoribo, said: “We view this report with disgust, given its unconcealed speculation and vindictiveness regarding such a sensitive matter. For the avoidance of doubt, Sylva does not own 48 buildings in Abuja or anywhere in the world.

So the issue of reclaiming ‘48 houses’ does not arise. He has only three houses in Abuja, which he built before he became the governor of Bayelsa State. This point has been made several times before, and neither EFCC nor those who had used EFCC as a tool of persecution against Sylva during the GEJ administration have contradicted this fact.

EFCC had taken their allegations of property ownership against Sylva to several courts without establishing anything against him. Beyond the commission’s routine media prosecution, no court of law has found Sylva guilty of any crime.

Indeed, in the course of the trials at the Federal High Court, Abuja, owners of some of the properties wrongfully attributed to him joined to claim their houses. The court ruled on the matter of the said 48 properties since 2013. .

Why is it now a subject of media attention? Clearly, this is a sponsored publication. Sylva takes great exception to the wholly speculative and vindictive report on the matter.

He frowns at the malicious audacity of the publishers of such a story, or their sponsors, despite warnings by the courts against media prosecutions and persecutions like this one, and the attempts by the EFCC to burnish its image that was mindlessly battered during the last administration.

To correct the wrong impression that sponsors of the falsehood against him are, obviously, trying to create, Sylva has instructed his lawyers to take legal action against publishers of the fake story.”