Timipre Sylva tears up APC membership card, says party has lost its moral compass

By Kingston Magare 31.8.2026
“Exiled” former Bayelsa State governor Timipre Sylva said he is no longer a member of the All-Progressives Congress, saying the party has deviated from its founding principles.
Mr. Sylva who had been forced to flee the country following allegations of participating in a coup plot to overthrow President Bola Tinubu said he had been saddened by how the party jettisoned its mission of rescuing Nigerians from economic and social upheavals.
“As a founding member of the APC, and one who joined other well-meaning Nigerians in building the Party with sweat and money, it is deeply saddening to witness how the ideals we espoused have been so thoroughly and unrecognisably thwarted,” the former governor and minister of state for petroleum under President Mohammadu Buhari said in a statement.
“All cannot be fair in any endeavour of life. The demands of basic decency and morality forbid it. Unfortunately, this mentality appears to underpin virtually every action, and even inaction, of this administration
“The present Government, formed under the banner of the APC we once loved, has disappointed the vast majority of Nigerians. And I can see neither a credible attempt nor any possibility of a revamp.
” I have no choice but to jettison a floundering ship whose fate appears to have been sealed by its irredeemable load of iniquities”.
He urged Nigerians to be united in getting rid of the President Tinubu’s administration and change the country’s political trajectory.
In November 2025 the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared him on allegations of conspiracy and dishonest conversion of $14.86m. He is also facing trial in absentia for his alleged involvment in a coup plot to unseat Tinubu.
He noted that resigning from the APC could, “redoubled the witch-hunt against me and my associates, but that is a risk I am willing to take.”
He said the EFCC has now become an organ of suppress by the APC rather than be an independent Federal agency fighting against crime.