The immediate past Rivers State Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), and the Rivers State House of Assembly appear headed for a confrontation after the lawmakers resolved to investigate the state’s finances during his six-month tenure.
Ibas left office on September 17 following the expiration of the emergency rule declared in March by Bola Tinubu, who had suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, and members of the state Assembly. Tinubu cited Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, saying the measure was necessary to restore peace in the politically volatile state.
During its first plenary after the emergency rule ended, the House, led by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, passed a resolution “to explore the process of knowing what transpired during the emergency rule with regard to spending from the consolidated revenue fund for the award of contracts and other expenditure.”
Data show that Rivers State received at least N254.37bn from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) between March and August 2025, averaging N42.40bn monthly. If September follows the same pattern, inflows could reach nearly N297bn.
Breakdowns reveal that the 13 per cent oil derivation remained the state’s single largest income source, contributing N133.24bn—about 52.4 per cent of total FAAC allocations—during the period. Debt servicing eroded revenues, with N26.31bn deducted for external loans. VAT receipts cushioned the impact, totalling N107.78bn.
Despite these large inflows, Rivers has not published its 2025 Budget Implementation Report, leaving residents unable to verify how the billions were spent on projects, salaries, or recurrent costs.
Civil society groups have demanded transparency. Chairman of the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Rivers State, Enefaa Georgewill, insisted that the total FAAC amount “deepened suspicion of mismanagement,” adding that “we will be calling on the Rivers State Governor to set up a panel of inquiry to ascertain how much he received both in terms of federal allocation and Internally Generated Revenue and how he expended it… because we suspect corruption.”
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Emma Obe of the Civil Liberties Organisation echoed the concern, describing the emergency government as unconstitutional and warning, “there is no government without accountability… whoever spends public money without accounting for it will pay for it, if not today, sometime to come.”
Reacting through his Senior Special Adviser on Media, Hector Igbikiowubu, Ibas dismissed the lawmakers’ plan. He argued that the Assembly lacked the authority to probe him, noting that “when you say they were going to probe the tenure of the administrator, was it the Assembly that appointed the administrator?”
Igbikiowubu added that the administrator acted “for and on behalf of the President” and was supervised by the National Assembly, declaring that any such probe amounted to a “fool’s errand.”
Governor Fubara, now back in office, attended a thanksgiving service in Opobo Town on Sunday, where he thanked God and the people of the state for their prayers during the emergency period.
“I am here together with my wife this first Sunday after the suspension of the state of emergency. We cannot thank God enough as a family,” he said, urging continued prayers as he resumes governance. #ibas
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